Memoirs.
by Inu-Ranma
Summary: Ranma's life changes Radically after he kills Happy. 3rd place Continuation Ranma Fanfic award winner for April, 2002!
1. Memoirs part 1: Memoirs of a Warrior (Fi...

Memoirs of a Warrior, Part 1: Final Revision.

Prologue

I killed him...I couldn't believe it at first...it was so easy...there was so

much blood...

The old man's neck snapped so easily under my anger...then I looked up...and I saw her eyes...and saw not the love that we had come to gain...but fear.

I didn't notice as they took me away...I didn't notice the irons they clamped upon my wrists and ankles...and I didn't notice my mother screaming hysterically, mourning not my loss, but the loss of her family's honor.

I only saw Akane. I only saw her tears.and I only saw my own hands: not the blood that covered them, but the fact that they weren't my own, would never again be mine, and would always be female.

* * *

The letter came to the Tendo residence with all of the gusto that any letter received. It got to the mailbox, which was in fact Kurenai Tsubasa in disguise, who ran off and got bonked by Kuonji Ukyo, who retrieved the letter and started walking it back to Tendo-ke, just in time to quite literally bump in to Shampoo, which precipitated a fight, in which the letter got lost, floated up, was retrieved by a rather large panda, and was deposited into a rather tattered Tendo mailbox, etc.

This was a rather calm morning and I woke up feeling great -- until a seemingly random hole was torn in my roof, through which a bruised Tsubasa came flying.

"What do you want, Tsubasa?" I drawled, half-asleep and a bit annoyed.

"L-letter, Ran...ma..."

Tsubasa dropped an elegantly embroidered letter with no return address into Ranma's lap, just in time to get punted back out of the house by a slightly-annoyed pigtailed-fury.

I casually opened the letter. "Just great...another challenge. Do these guys ever give me a break? Why can't they just..."

Ranma dropped the letter as he saw the seal that was rather awkwardly placed onto the space marked "return address."

"Prince Herb."

"Oh no...I thought that dragon had enough..."

I retrieved the letter from the floor and almost fell over again in surprise.

"This...can't...be"

"To the Honourable Saotome.

I would like to inform you that our prized artifact, the Chisuiton, was rather rudely extracted from our treasury last week. My guards report seeing a wizened old man running away, and also noted that their wives underclothing was missing as well, so I would advise that you hold caution, as the culprit must be up to no good.

-Herb

I looked up from the letter to see Akane entering the Dojo.

"Are you ready to go, Ranma? What's that letter?"

I quickly tossed the letter out, not wanting to give Akane reason for worry.

"Just some junk mail, tomboy...nothing to worry about."

I realized as I dodged the Furisode that she threw that it was probably not the most intelligent choice of words.

"Get ready, pervert. We have to leave now or we'll miss the cherry blossoms in Kyoto, and I know how much you love being in girl form for these, so..."

A rather cold blast of water hit me right in the face.

"Okay...be right there." Well...the hanami was one of my favorite pastimes, and Kyoto was a more extravagant vacation spot than we were used to.

I quickly donned the kimono and rushed out to meet my mother and the Tendo girls, similarly clad.

"I do wish that you would clothe and...form yourself appropriately for this occasion, Ranma. You are, after all, representing the clan Saotome, since your father is far less than an adequate example of manhood." My mother gave me a disappointed look, which I deliberately avoided.

That being said, we headed for the train station, my mind wandering to the meaning of the letter I received from Herb. It was obvious that Happosai was the culprit, and he was up to something.

On the train, aside from my almost being sent into orbit a few times by Akane, the trip was uneventful.

* * *

When we arrived in Kyoto, it was in a state of hightened security . There were police everywhere. All the same, the cherry blossoms that were beautiful, and the day was perfect.

As we walked down the gorgeous double row of sakura trees, the beauty of the cherry blossoms that adorned the path caught my attention. The only thought, for some reason, which could penetrate my mind was that it was a tragedy that only in a form of small death could such beauty exist.

Akane approached me.

"Isn't it beautiful, what this time of rebirth can show us, Ranma?"

I guess I couldn't understand what fate was trying to tell me then.

"Be mine forever, Ranma-chan!"

The voice was one which, since that morning, I had dreaded hearing. and the cold water was something which I did not expect.

"That's cold! What are you up to, old man? I'm already a girl..."

"Yes, my pretty, but you'll not like what I'll do. Unless, of course, you pose for me, now, in these." With that the owner of that dreaded cackle, Happosai approached me, in one hand, an ornate ladle, and in the other, a bra and panties that were so skimpy that there must have been some law of physics that they violated.

"Forget that, old man!" I poised for battle with my usual arrogance, not realizing what the old man had done.

Happosai grinned evilly "Fine, my pretty, be that way, but the consequences are on your own head!" He revealed a familiar-looking kettle and gently placed a Happou Dai Karin inside before tossing it way up into the air, where it exploded violently.

I finally realized the implications of the old letch's actions. It was - had been - the Kaisui-fuu.

"Gods...no." The world, my world was spinning. My vision shrank to include two things, the old letch and hate. He would die for this. He would die by my hand, and I would make sure it was damn painful. There was no way I was going to let him live for stealing my manhood. He would pay.

* * *

Ranma sank to her knees, and as far as I could tell, she was intact, if not wet.

As I approached her, she looked up, a haunted, dead look in her eyes.

I'll never forget that look, for it showed me the meaning of fear, that day. It is a wonder to me how Happosai withstood it.

"You have no idea what you've done, old freak."

"Do you know what this is, m'boy?" Happosai chuckled as he waved the ladle around. "This is the end of your manhood, and the beginning of my endless pleasure....now put the bra on before I hurt you, little girl," the letch leered maliciously.

"Die, letch!"

I rushed forward to stop Ranma from running into a fight she couldn't win but she brushed me off. "Stay back, Akane. I'm going to kill him for what he did. I don't want you hurt in this." For a moment I saw tenderness in Ranma's eyes, then they were cold and harsh, once more.

With that Ranma launched into a fury of attacks, and Happosai ran, the crowd that had come to see the cherry blossoms parting the way for them, in regard for their skins, most likely.

I gave chase as well as I could, and so did most of the surrounding police officers. This was going to be bad.

* * *

I followed the old man.

He would pay for this.

As he ran I managed to score a few hits.

As we leapt from rooftop to rooftop, looking like something out of an old martial-arts movie, I sent small ki-blasts in Happosai's direction, which he dodged with ease.

"What's wrong, little girl? Are your weak arms and legs getting tired?" The old letch bombarded me with taunts as I chased, and then turned around, glomped me, and broke into a run again..

"Gya ha ha! You're not strong enough or fast enough to take me, my little sweetling! Why not just give up and succumb to your fate, and accompany an old man like little girls should?" Happosai leered as he began to hop across rooftops again.

"In your dreams, old man! You're going to pay for what you did to me!" I put on more speed, not wanting the pervert to get away.

Finally, one of my ki-blasts scored on Happosai's left leg, slowing him down enough for me to rain blows down upon him, but he was right, I was weaker. The letch shrugged the blows off and kept hopping.

In a last desperate strike, as we got nearer to a clearing, I put all of my force into one blast that managed to make the old man stumble enough for me to plant one wooden sandle onto his foot.

I grinned at him as I heard the satisfying crack of wood against bone.

As I looked into the old man's eyes, still not seeing the fear that I desired, he loosened his foot and bounded towards the clearing.

He had finally begun to limp.

We finally came to the rather large clearing. People must have known we were coming this way, Because they were gathered all around, intent on the outcome of our duel.

I didn't care.

As Happosai landed he took stance for another Dai Karin, so I took my chance and went into a volley of Attacks.

"Kachuu Tenchin Amaguriken!!"

Within the blink of an eye the old man was on the ground. I had at least shattered both of his arms, his kneecaps were gone, and I think I may have hit a kidney.

"Is that...all you have...little girl?" Happosai coughed, and I noticed a bit of blood dripping fro the corner of his lips. He was upon his last hour, and he knew it.

"More than you can take, old fool."

"Ha! I can take far more than-"

snap!

I would hear no more, I snapped his neck, and welcomed a temporary oblivion.

* * *

As I slowly walked nearer to Ranma and what was left of the old letch, a police officer, followed by my sisters, daddy, and Ranma's parents emerged from the crowd.

The police officer began asking questions, and the crowd was proud to announce how the supermodel with the red hair had beat the tar out of the man with the bikini in his hand, and then ask what movie was being filmed.

As Ranma got up to survey her surroundings, Genma made to move forward, grab her, and run off, but blanched and backeed off as Nodoka suggestively slid her katana partway out of it's sheathe.

"Say anything, husband, and it shall be your belly on the block. This is not our son, but nothing more than a little slut who has killed a defenseless old man. To have her among our family would destroy our honor."

I gasped in surprise at what Nodoka said. How could she be so cruel? Ranma was her own family! I began to walk forward to console Ranma but father caught my shoulder and held me back, shaking his head. There was nothng I could do.

The officer came to Nodoka.

"Excuse me miss. Witnesses say this girl arrived with you. Can you confirm her identity?"

"Why, I've never seen her in my life, officer. They must have had me confused for this savage child's mother, but indeed, I have no daughter. I once had a son, but he died in dishonor."

"So that's how it is."

Ranma stood up, coming to. She looked dead. I had never seen such betrayal in my life.

I was scared, to say the least, and said something which I regretted for the rest of my days.

I looked around me for support, but found nothing. Kasumi would not override Nodoka, even in dishonor, and Nabiki simply stood and watched, and unreadable expression on her face.

I could hold my tongue no more. "Ranma...what have you done? Run!"

The look which Ranma flashed Nodoka was nothing compared to the sadness I saw in her eyes when she heard those words.

Ranma got up to make a break for it. I winced as she was hit by a tranquilizer dart from a nearby policeman.

The last thing I saw from Ranma made me want to die myself, for the sadness in her eyes haunted me for the following two years.

* * *

I always loved the Japanese cherry blossom festivals. I always seemed to find such interesting things there. This year seemed to be no different. I quietly unfolded my cell phone as I got into my car and made a call to a friend of mine, the chief of the Kyoto police department.

"Takeshi-san. Yes, It's me. I want you to get a girl for my ward. About five-foot six, Redhead. No I don't know what she is in metrics. Definitely natural red. As soon as possible. Yes. Thank you."

I had to have her. I could help her. I could make her ready to return to society, to her friends, to her lover.

* * *

When I came to, I was in a room, full of books, and there was a man sitting next to me.

I seemed to be sitting in front of a desk. At the desk were sitting 3...no...1...no...3...definitely one man, I think. The man at the desk mumbled something that I didn't catch, and the man near me mumbled something back. The man at the desk pushed something white towards me and the man near me looked at the white thing for what seemed like ages then nodded enthusiastically at me. Not knowing what else to do, I nodded right back. As I blacked out again, I saw the two men shaking hands.

* * *

When I awoke again, I saw pink.

I rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn't on something, but, assuredly, I was in a room with a pink bed, a pink rug, and a pink ceiling. I had even been dressed in what looked like pink sweat pants and what felt like panties and a bra. I had the uncomfortable feeling that the undergarments were also pink. The walls were white, but it was unimportant, as the overly pink vibe of the rest of the room shone on them quite well.

"Damn. All that to not have to wear panties and a bra, and I end up in them anyway."

Memoirs part 1: Memoirs of a Warrior

Shimada Izumo, 12-01-1998

When she arrived, all hell broke loose. The first Jane Doe ever admitted to the Kyoto Women's Ward. She seemed to think that she was some inhumanly good martial artist. The guards, myself included, did not believe her. 

That was sheer folly.

I'm Doctor Izumo Shimada. The guards and some of our more outgoing 'guests' call me 'Izzy.'

I work in the Kyoto Center for Potential Productive Femimine Members of Society Who Have Had Unfortunate Bouts With Psychosis. The Kyoto Women's Ward, for short.

Background:

On June 5th, 1998 we received a very unique case.

Jane Doe, thought to be gaijin, age 17, multiple charges of assault and battery, snapped the neck of a man, guessed to be about 150 years old like a twig. Old man was apparently the perpetrator of many cases of voyeurism. Assumably, from the bra found in the hand of the old man when the incident happened and the fact that she was, for some reason, wearing men's boxers, the patient was undertstandably infuriated at the victim for the theft of her undergarments, specifically the bra, which was of expensive design.

Patient believes her name to be Saotome Ranma, the name held by a student at Fuurinkan High School. Saotome, a 17 year old male, was unavailable for questioning, and is presumed dead, possibly killed by Patient. The search for a body is still in progress.

Saotome Nodoka, the mother of the missing boy,

only responded that her son was dead and that the gaijin girl was no relative

of hers. It is still a mystery as to how the girl got into Japan.

Initial Analysis:

Shimada Izumo, 6-17-98

Patient is responsive to questioning, seems to have shut the event of "the old

letch's" death out of her mind.

She seems to have known him for quite some time, supported by her intimate

knowledge of his everyday practices. She mentions having had intimate

relations with one Akane Tendo, who was not allowed to be questioned by her

father during the initial investigation.

The patient speaks Japanese with terrible grammar at best. 

Chinese and

American governments have no emigrant records of her, neither does the

immigration department.

Despite this, the patient does show a high degree of the honor attributed to many of the more opulent families in greater Nerima, from whence she claims to hail.

The patient seemed convinced that not only could she break out, but that she would also be gone within hours.

I managed to convince the patient to stay, but her motives still are unclear to me.

Patient is highly unstable, recommend no visiting privileges for at least 4 months following admission to the KWW.

* * *

When I approached Ranma for the first time, although at that time I knew her

only as a Jane Doe, It took me half an hour to even get in to see her...

"Oi! Izzy!'

Dr. Takada, one of the other guards in the B Ward of the KWW ran up to me,

his eyes bloodshot and his breath drawn.

"Hai! Takada-san, what's wrong?" I said, but with this sinking feeling, I knew

something was up.

"It's the new patient, the Jane Doe...she's doing pushups."

"Since when is that a big deal, Takada-kun? Our patients like to keep

physically active. We should be proud!"

"Um, Izzy...she's doing them with one hand."

I blinked slowly and assimilated the information. "Well...She's ve..."

"Upside down, with one hand, Izzy."

I almost spilled my morning's coffee...for a female's physical strength in the upper arm to be that high was incredible. most Olympic athletes couldn't do that.

"That's not all, Izumo-san...she's glowing..."

This time, I did spill my coffee.

"She what...?"

"I can't describe it, Izzy. This one scares me. Nothing good will come of this."

* * *

Heeding Takada's warning, and fascinating analysis of the patient's current situation, I approached the patient's room and almost immediately stopped in sheer amazement.

She was gorgeous.

About five-foot-six, redhead, easy on the eyes. This girl could have been a supermodel if she wasn't a cold blooded murderer. Then I saw her eyes. Blue, the deepest blue. No, deeper. I'd heard of the girls who wore their hearts on their sleeves, well this 'Jane Doe' wore hers in her eyes. It was as if, through looking into those two miniature oceans, I had known her for years.

I stammered as I began to introduce myself

"H-hello, Mrs. I'm Iz-Dr. I-Shimada Izzy-er...Izumo."

The girl smoothly switched hands and kept doing her pushups as if I wasn't there.

I slowly got a little more courage and even got a bit indignant.

"I'll be your psychologist and your only guard. Welcome to the KWW. If you need anything, just ask me. My hope is to have you ready to re-enter society within a year or two, but to do that, I need your help."

Suddenly, before I could blink, the girl was no more than two or three inches

in front of my face.

"Go away."

"I can't do th-"

"And don't come back until you have a decent pair of boxer shorts with you."

"B-boxers?"

"Yeah...I'm not gonna be wearing pink lingerie for the next year."

"But I can't...you see, we're not allowed to bring any foreign objects into the patients' rooms. They even check our uniforms for completeness and accuracy to the Ward standards"

"Oh?" The girl grinned viciously. "Then you may need these"

I nearly passed out as she handed me all of the buttons off of my coat.

Needless to say, the first meeting did not go well, and I hadn't even started the initial evaluation yet.

* * *

Surprisingly, the initial evaluation went well.

As the girl walked in I took stock of her while she was right-side up, and not

poised to kill me.

She was acting very like a Japanese boy.

This realization threw me off of my track from the very start of the meeting.

"Who are you?"

The girl went over and flopped unfemininely down onto the couch, which

surprised me further.

"Saotome Ranma, heir to the Musabetsu Kakutou Saotome-ryuu. Sorry, but I'm currently neither accepting neither new fiances nor challenges, as you can see..." The girl grinned as if she had made some incredibly humorous joke.

"Please answer my questions truthfully, Miss. Saotome Ranma is a 17 year old male, and is currently unaccounted for. Do you know where he is? I'm sure his family must be worried."

The girl's eyes flashed angrily as I mentioned her family. "No. They made it clear that they didn't want me anymore."

I sighed and had resigned myself to the name she seemed to have chosen when she managed to surprise me yet again.

"I'm sorry, doc. I realize this must be hard for you. Maybe you can try calling me Ranko?"

I sighed again, this time in relief., and offered Ranko my hand. "Well, Ranko, my name is Shimada Izumo, but all of the guards and my patients call me Izzy, and I hope you will too."

Ranko took the hand with gratitude, and it was clear that she had finally found a friend in these obviously dark times for her, and that friend was me.

From there I began to ask her about her life, and the meeting actually ended early because I ran out of note paper. This Saotome Ranko, or whoever she was, had dreamed up an interesting life.

* * *

On the way back to her room we chatted idly about the meeting.

"So...let me get this straight, you were originally a boy, and a hell of a martial artist at that?"

Ranko nodded silently.

"So I have just one question...why won't the Tendos admit to knowing you?"

"I've dishonored them. I am no longer fit to marry Akane, and am therefore useless to my freeloading pop. All of these things make me no use to anybody in my 'family,'"

We spent the rest of the walk in silence until we reached her room.

"I need to ask one more thing of you, Ranko." I hoped to all of my stars that this would work.

"What is it, Doc?"

"If you can get out so easily, why are you still here?"

"Well, I never thought of that. I guess it's first because I have nowhere else to go. The woman I love is scared to death of me, and my family doesn't want me. Furthermore, it's because both of my parents would have run away, though they would have used separate reasons and methods for it. One, through seppuku and using the excuse of honor, in her perverse holding of honor above all else, even herself, or her family. The other would have pretended to be a lost panda. Don't ask."

"Thank you, Ranko...we'll meet again next week. Until then, make sure you get to know the other patients. Thank you."

* * *

There was one other reason for which I could not go back yet.

I had to bide my time. I had to make sure that my revenge was perfect. I had to make sure that she would pay.

* * *

I couldn't stand not knowing what Ucchan was doing, what she thought happened, whether Shampoo had just packed up and left, whether Kuno and Ryoga had just given me up for dead and gone after Akane themselves.

Akane...

Gods, how I missed her

All those times I insulted her, they haunt me still...

Gods, how I miss her.

There is a reaccuring dream I had for a very long time, and I never thought much of it until I began to look back on those first few days, to realize how brash I was. Not until I had been reborn could I have known what this dream meant.

It goes something like this:

I'm entering the Dojo, the place that was more or less a home to me for so many years, and as I enter, I hear the sounds of a battle, and a fierce battle at that, going on. I rush to see if I can give aid, but as I enter the dojo, there is nobody there.

I investigate to find, in the middle of the floor, a picture frame, covered in shattered glass.

As I inspect the picture I notice with no small amount of awe that it's of me. But I'm with a boy, about six feet tall, a hunk, and a pigtail just like mine.

This is about the time when I realize with horror that the boy is me, and that this 'me' is no longer who I am.

Just as I come to this conclusion I get tapped on the shoulder

"Hello Ranko," a voice, mocking and cruel, sneers as I turn around to find nobody there.

"I never was very fast as a girl, always so small. So weak"

I spin again and catch the voice by the neck, and it's the pigtailed boy, he infuriates me, I attack him.

As I drive him back to the wall he sneers as I take a stance that I don't know. a stance that's obviously intended to be offensive, and he shows fear.

I enjoy it.

I grab him by the neck once again and once again the bone cracks.

But it's no longer his neck,

No.

Ucchan's

No, not Ucchan's.

Akane-chan's!

Then suddenly, I'm the one held up against the wall, my neck snapped like a pocky stick, my body beaten and bruised.

The first time I had that dream I woke up screaming, and encountered yet another hell. As I opened my eyes they beheld what can only be described as Pink. Everything in the room exuded the essence of female modesty and kindness. Not adorned with the simple bed mat and lamp, along with a kettle for emergencies, was this room, but instead filled with stuffed animals and the like, promising dreams of sugar and spice, not of Kuno and Ryoga, and battles.

Part of me insisted adamantly that this might not be so bad. Perhaps this was the only part of me with any sense.

With this thought of giving in, of excepting the possibility that my cure was gone. that the cure would not happen, my 'old self' lashed out, and that little bit of sense, an oasis of heaven in a desert of hell, was killed.

* * *

From the legal file of Saotome Ranma

6-03-1998

Account by Ward guard Masame Taku. morning shift

It was a more or less normal morning shift at the start. The girls in the South wing of the ward were quiet, as usual. but as I approached the room of the new girl, the Jane Doe who came in on the First, I heard some sort of screaming. It sounded something like 'Kachuu Tenchin Amaguriken."

I can't quite describe what happened next, because I still don't believe it myself.

The door to the new girl's room quite literally flew off of it's hinges. As I walked carefully towards the room I noticed the shrapnel from what looked like one of the wooden doors into the patients' dorms. I entered the room, to find the new patient kneeled on the floor among hundreds of very small shreds of black cloth.

As far as I could tell, she looked relieved and had yet to notice me.

* * *

I looked up after a while to see that the guard was still standing there.

The look on the poor sap's face was priceless.

"Um...Are you okay?" the poor guy asked.

"I don't believe it" I managed to croak out as I regained my stamina. "They left the thrice-damned bikini set in my drawers!"

As the guard paled at the sight of black confetti that was spread across the remains of the door I went to sit on 'my' bed.

Just then the rest of the guards arrived to survey the scene, me on the bed with a satisfied Ranma grin, and the guard there, looking as if he had just wet himself.

Unfortunately, by the looks of the tazers they were brandishing they didn't think it was quite as funny as I did.

That was my last conscious thought before lunch.

* * *

When I came to I was in a new room, identical to the last, except this time there was a stuffed animal there. It had to be a c-...a ca...A feline.

I tossed the makeshift creature into the rooms furthest corner and lay down on the bed as I considered my situation. As I pondered I noticed the tray of piping hot beef stew near my door. As I was starving, I polished off the plate cleanly and gingerly licked each and every drop of the stew off of the dishes.

Almost as if on cue, when I finished with the food, the door to my room opened and an orderly, a rather large, cruel-looking man, all in white, who looked like he-d been imported from a bad American action movie looked at me coldly.

"Come," he said, speaking to me as if I was the female dog that society currently thought I was equal to.

Having nothing better to do, I followed.

* * *

We entered a small auditorium that was filled with girls who were anywhere from what looked like twelve years old to twenty years old.

the thug quickly pushed me into a seat and gestured to the front of the room, not taking his eyes off of me.

As everybody got seated, an elderly, good-natured looking man approached a raised podium at the front of the room, Unlike how I felt about the thug, the look in this man's eyes made it so I instantly felt a liking for him.

"Hello, girls, and welcome to the B wing of the KWW. As many of you fine women have no doubt guessed, I am not Japanese. I am a psychiatrist from Germany. I used to be a police officer, back in my day, when I realized that many of the young girls who I was arresting were not getting the social remedy that they were meant to receive from the jails of my time," the old man smiled as if there was an inside joke, much to my annoyance.

"I, wondering why this happened, started to research the 'problem,' and I found the most interesting bit of information. It turns out that prison was, in fact, making young children, specifically female, more prone to commit crimes in the future!"

About this time I was beginning to nod off, as this guy was nowhere near as dangerous as Hinako-sensei, and therefore not to be taken nearly as seriously.

The old man must have noticed me.

"Anyway, you will notice as you get to know each other that you have all been indicted for murder by the Japanese courts, similarly, you have all been diagnosed with some form of temporary hysteria. What you are is new participants in my ground breaking form of therapy which will make sure you all remain productive, feminine, Japanese women."

I could only think of one thing to say.

"Oh, shit."

Perhaps that was a mistake, as I once again got a tazer to the back of the neck, but it was not such a shock this time.

"Let that be a lesson to you, girls." Suddenly, I did not like his tone of voice. "We do not tolerate swearing. And, most of all. We do not tolerate fighting.

I was in trouble.

* * *

From the Diary of Kuonji Ukyo: 6-03-1998

Dear Diary,

Ranchan is missing.

Gods, I don't know what to do.The Tendos wouldn't tell me what happened. They act like Ranma doesn't even exist!

I wonder why Akane wasn't there...

I'm so lonely. What will I do without him?

I guess I have to keep making okonomiyaki. I don't want to have to go back to father. I will find Ranchan.

* * *

From the personal files of Tendo Akane, unearthed 1/2002

June 3, 1998.

After father did something that despicable, I left. I just couldn't be around someone with so little integrity. After what I saw him do, I may have done something as brash as what Ranma did.

I still can't believe he did it.... Even now, I'm seeing him hold the lifeless body of the old man between those hands. So feminine.

Can I love her anymore?

* * *

Today I went looking for information, and may have gained some help.

As I was exiting my apartment, another few tens of thousands of yen that I would owe Nabiki, which is about three or four city blocks from Furinkan, I noticed I was being followed.

As this wasn't entirely odd for me, I started running. Worst case, it was another prince, or flying demon, or ice-skating male diva chasing after me.

As I realized that whoever it was was having no trouble catching up, I started to run harder.

All I could think was that I wanted Ranma...I wanted his help so badly. I needed him. Where was he? That BAKA!

When whoever it was was finally lost in my wake I bent down to catch my breath than looked up.

I saw Ucchan's. I knew it was closed, but thought Ukyo may have done some of her own investigating, so I quietly snuck in.What I saw struck me dumb.

There, leaning over a small diary was Ukyo, crying her eyes out.

"Ukyo..."

Before I could blink the martial chef was at my throat, one of her miniature spatulas poised at my jugular.

"What do you want, you conniving bitch? This is some scheme of yours to steal my Ranma, isn't it. Well, you don't deserve him! You were never a friend to him, you never fed him anything but your thrice-damned poisons! You..."

"I love him, Ukyo!"

Ukyo dissolved into more sobs. "Then it's true, isn't it? They took him away..."

"Yes. My father and Mrs. Saotome abandoned him. they left him like he was yesterday's trash. I miss him, I love him, and I want him back. I don't know how to ask you this...but I guess I have to be straightforward. please help me, I'm begging you." I made a movement to comfort Ukyo, but realized that I had no idea what I could do to help.

"Okay, Akane. But you have my vow on this. If I find that you had something to do with his leaving, I will kill you." I believed her with all of my heart, not for her incredible skill in the art, but because of her voice. Because I was speaking with another woman who had lost her lover, and because I myself might have said the same, and, more importantly, would have been ready, if not eager to kill her if I was in her situation.

As I began to exit the restaurant, a man walked in and seated himself at the bar.

"Kuonji Ukyo and Tendo Akane, the one who will lead you to your love is imprisoned, but by his own free will." The man didn't even turn as he addressed us.

Ukyo would not stand for this.

"Bu..."

"The Ranma you know is dead. I will not be responsible for the consequences if you find him and don't like what you've found."

"Haabu," Akane said. "Why have you come?"

The Chinese prince bared teeth too fanglike to be mistaken for anything but exactly that, fangs.

"I want my ladle, and I want my rematch. I would also like to thank you, the jog was quite interesting, Tendo Akane."

I blanched a bit and Ukyo and I began to make arrangements for my moving in with her. I even allowed myself a bit of enthusiasm. We were going to find Ranma!

* * *

As the effects of the tazer wore off the speech of the old man, who I was quickly growing to dislike, drew to an end.

I began to stand up as all of the girls filed out but the thug with the tazer quickly motioned that I stay put.

"Hello, Ranko. Perhaps you didn't catch my name as you were snoozing during my speech, I'm George Hans."

I turned around to find myself standing face to face with the old man, the twinkle in his eyes making me want to be friendly with him, but the buzzing in my ears making me want to plant my foot in his face.

"I'm terribly sorry about the tazer, child, but the rest of your wing-mates are treading on thin ice that's almost as fragile as your own. Between the incident with your underwear and the swearing during my speech I wonder if you want to be here at all," the old man said with a chuckle.

"Anyway, to the point of why I came to see you, I would like to make sure that there is no violence or swearing from you. Can I have your word on that, Ranko-chan?"

I paled a bit at the suffix attached to my name.

"I'm sorry. What can I call you?"

"I'm Saotome Ranma of the Musabetsu Kakutou Saotome-ryuu. I would be pleased to retain my own name."

"That's the one thing I can't call you. Not yet, but how about this: I will allow you to retain your Family name, for our purposes, while you must take the name Ranko, as you agreed to use with your doctor, as a legal name. Is that a deal?"

"Done, provided I get no stuffed animals. I'm not a stupid girl and I don't appreciate gettin' girl stuff shoved in my face."

"Fair enough, Saotome-san, but keep in mind that you are a female as of now, which means that you must act female, meaning you also must learn prudence, and when not to act. Consider our little episode with the tazer your first lesson, and what I hope is the only one that will require any violence."

"H-hai..." I was a little overcome by the candidness of the old man. He must have been hiding something. People who seemed this candid always were like Mousse, or Ryoga. They were always waiting to stab me in this back. and I knew that this man was too.

I bowed formally to Hans and left, having nothing more to say.

As the thug brought me back to my room I noticed, gratefully, that the stuffed cat was no longer in the corner.

I foolishly thought that this would allow me to rest easy.

* * *

I woke up for the second time in two nights screaming, looked around the dark room, and drew my knees up to my chest as I stared at the wall.

This was not right. I was Saotome Ranma, man among men!

Why was I sitting here, screaming like a girl, in a girlish room, having a dream where I thought of a boy as a hunk?

What was wrong with me?

My door opened a crack and the scared guard from before peeked in.

"Are you okay, miss," the guard asked, not sure whether to be afraid of me or not, yet.

"I'm sorry. I had a bad dream."

"Would you like a glass of water or anything?"

I nearly facefaulted.

"Um...Isn't this a prison and aren't you a guard?"

"Well, most of us are actually personal care-givers. I myself actually worked at a convalescent home before this, but the Ward paid so much better that I almost had no choice but to accept. I have a bit of martial arts training so I can handle things if any patients get out of hand.

"Just like me, right?"

The guard gulped audibly "How did you do that, anyway?"

"I have a bit of martial arts training," I said with a wry grin. "I'm sorry...I guess it was just that part of me that's just not used to..."

"To what?"

"Well, between you and me, to being a woman."

"Oh. I see! You mean it's just that it's that time of the Mo..."

The guard didn't finish that sentence as I whacked him pretty hard across the top of his head, but not hard enough to hurt him.

"No, it's not THAT!" I said with minor annoyance, and a bit of amusement. "I mean I used to not be a woman. I used to be a man, and a man among men, to boot!"

The guard did a minor face fault.

"A...man? But how? you don't have the scars of a surgery..."

"I was, and am, cursed."

Suddenly the guard sat bolt upright.

"Oh...I see." He obviously didn't.

"Look...when I was sixteen I went to this cursed training ground in China and fell in to something called the Nyannichuan: The Spring of Drowned Girl. From that point on I got turned into a female whenever cold water hit me, which is more frequent than I care to mention, and hot water reversed the effect. On the first an old man splashed me with a magic ladle called the Chisuiton, which stuck me in the curse, and the antidote was destroyed before my very eyes. With that I lost hope of my manhood, and I snapped.

"This is fascinating," the guard said, "but I fear I must get back to my rounds, since you are okay."

"Please wait," I said, suddenly just not wanting to be alone. "can I get your name?"

"Taku.,' the guard flashed a grin and pointed to his name tag. "and which lovely lady do I have the pleasure of addressing?"

"Saotome Ranko, at your service." I said with a little bow.

With that the guard left and closed the door to go finish his rounds.

With that I returned to my pillow, with thoughts of the next day, and fell asleep.

* * *

As I awoke the next day I felt unusually warm, and through my groggy eyes I noticed a woman with a familiar hairstyle sitting at the foot of my bed.

"MMMno, mom...you dun' wanna see me n' girl form..." I tried to spout out some form of proper greeting.

The voice that greeted me back was not my mother's, and, as I recalled the last few days, I remembered that I was not at home, and that I had no mother.

"You're silly!" the high soprano piped back. "It's time to get up and have breakfast."

'H-how did you get in?"

"What? It's not like the doors are ever locked or anything," she twittered again.

"Oh."

I was too tired to think.

The girl sniffed the air.

"Ewww! You smell like a horse! Take a bath before breakfast. I'll wait."

I finally sat up to survey my companion and found, to my surprise and relief, that she looked absolutely nothing like my mother.

"Where's the bathroom?" I asked in a slightly less groggy tone.

"Cheery, Arn'cha?" She said as she pointed to a door across the hall. "Our bathrooms are communal. but there shouldn't be too much of a crowd in them right now. At least we don't have to worry about boys walking in on us, as not even the doctors and orderlies are allowed in there unless it's an emergency."

I approached the bathroom door and opened it and found a room that could only be described as amazing.

The architecture was comparable to ancient greek, with Doric columns lining each of the 16 levels of floor surrounding the room, each level was two feet below and 6 feet inward of the last, while the last two were filled completely with steaming water.

I had never willingly had a hot bath as a female, but I had also not had any form of bathing since they hosed the old freak's blood off of me upon my entry to the Ward, so, without an alternative, I stripped and hopped in. This was about when I noticed that there were about thirty girls in the bath with me.

This was the only occasion upon which I have been thankful for the Chisuiton, despite the fact that it was what got me into this mess.

Each and every other girl in the bath, excluding my companion, who was sitting on a bench on the top level of the room, playing with her hair, looked like she would gladly have slit my throat if the voices in her head told her to.

I tried not to pay attention to them and continued bathing, as there was not much I could do about it and I didn't want to get into any more trouble by having to beat the daylights out of dozens of other 'guests' at the Ward.

As I was washing my hair, halfway expecting some old freak, a pig, or a duck to appear out from under of one of the many floating buckets the girl who had led me to the baths approached me.

"Why do you keep it all bound up like that? It's so beautiful. I wish mine was like that!"

"Huh?"

"Your hair! It's gorgeous!"

"Well I...errr...that is...Well I'm no girl! What do you expect? Do you expect to me to flounce around and act all pretty and ditzy or something?" I began to get angry.

"Simmer down. If you want to be a tomboy that's your choice."

"What did you say?"

"I said you're acting like a tomboy!"

"A tomboy....I used to call her that all of the time. Ranma no baka..."

"Who's Ranma?"

"Huh?" I had almost forgotten she was still standing ear my spot in the bath.

"Ranma. Who is he? Was he your boyfriend before you came here?"

"No...Ranma wasn't...He's dead now."

"Oh!" the girl lowered her voice. "Is that why you're here now?"

"In a way. You see..." I tried to think of some way to explain it without sounding psychotic.

"I got very mad at this old pervert, who was trying to get me to wear this bra...and I never wear bras" The girls around me sniggered at this, but kept washing, "and I got very mad at him...and he did something very bad, and killed Ranma" this incited a gasp, "And I beat him up, then I broke his neck." This brought on another gasp.

"After that, Ranma's mother pretended that I never existed, and since I have no identity in Japan, I was sent here."

I got looks of sympathy for my plight from many of the girls.

"What did the old man do that was so bad, aside from killing your boyfriend?" Sera piped up yet again, seeming very curious.

I was at a loss of words, so I just spit it out.

"He made it so I'd never be a man again."

By now the entire bath was listening, and I therefore got hit with the huge splash that came of about thirty girls facefaulting at once.

"Er...I meant...that is...he destroyed Ranma's, and by extension my chance for a happy life." Many of the girls recovered.

Many comments came soon after about what other girls would have done.

"yeah...if it'd been me I would have slit his throat."

"I wish I was strong enough to snap a neck"

" I would've used a spoon!"

I quickly finished up, not wishing to hear any more, and followed my companion out, after getting dressed in some more pink, ugh, sweats.

* * *

"Ward B houses 150 girls, including yourself and the new blood," Sera, as she said her name was, explained to me. "Newbies are allowed to wear the sweats for one week until they are required to put on the nightgowns at night and the sundresses or yukata robes at day. During sports sessions we are allowed polo shirts and skirts or T-shirts and bloomers."

"Sports sessions?" I asked excitedly, wondering if there might, after all, be an opportunity to keep my training up in this place, where there seemed to be nothing to do.

"Indeed, we keep a Kenpo team, which is loosely translated into street fighting by the entrants, but you wouldn't want to mix with them. They're tough and most of them are quite cruel as well.

My mind was already reeling with the possibility of new opponents and possibly even a chance for improvement.

When we finally approached the cafeteria I was not only nearly starving for breakfast, but aching to know more about the Kenpo team as well. Sera, unfortunately, didn't know much about it, other than the many bets she lost, and attempted to steer the conversation towards more pleasant subjects.

"The food here isn't half bad. We stole the chef from the Hilton of Tokyo a few years back so we always get healthy, and sometimes even fun foods."

"I don't care what it is, so long as there's a lot of it" I grinned.

After we got our trays and filled them with various dishes of eggs, bacon, vegetables, and any combination of the three, and glasses of juice I led us toward an empty table, chatting idly about what I used to get fed by Shampoo, Ukyo, and Akane on the way.

"Well...maybe we should ask the chef to make okonomiyaki with us, he's usually open to suggest-" Sera stopped cold. "Oh no...tell me we're not at table 23, please tell me we're nit at table 23, Ranko..."

"Why?"

"Because Yoiko, the captain of the Kenpo team, is coming and she looks pissed."

"Speak up, Arashi. Why are you and the newbie sitting at my table?"

I turned to survey the owner of the light alto voice to find that she could have passed as my female form's older sister, or my male form's twin sister, had I not been an only child. Her hair was the same fiery red as my own, cut in the short in the sides and back, with bangs in front,

"I'm Ranko," I said, as I began to hazard an introduction, "Saotome Ranko."

"I know who you are. You're the girl that got zapped at the first assembly. What I don't know is why you're at my ta-" she had to stop as a piece of my bacon hit her in the forehead, spelling 'A-hou' with very precise handwriting and aim.

"Fine," I said. "I challenge you for ownership of the table. But, mark my words, you will regret it."

"Okay," said the other girl with a savage grin to parallel my own, "Deal, and, should win, I will allow you to date me. but what will you wager in your favor."

"First of all. I have no interest in dating y-"

"What...are you going to tell me you like boys? Give it up. Takes one to know one, sister."

I turned a visible red as 'Yoiko' Laughed good naturedly.

"Fine. Have it your way. If you win I'll allow you to date with me!"

This caused Yoiko to laugh even harder.

"Very well, Saotome-chan. I like you. in the gym, 1pm today. And I'm holding you to that date either way. One of the things Mr. Hans enforces is the keeping of debts. Well, until then I think you and I will be eating lunch together."

I resigned myself to that fate, as Yoiko seemed to be good natured, and not out to marry me.

Maybe this place wouldn't be so bad...

This evening was going to be fun, after all.

Disclaimer:

This is a rewrite of this chapter, based on the reviews by the readers of Fanfiction.net, and one other who is special to me ;)

All Characters from Ranma 1/2 Are created by, and therefor the property of Rumiko Takahashi. All other characters in this fic are from the twisted mind of the author. This is what happens when you mix J-Pop, Carmina Burana, and New Rock.

This fic was not written for money and I have yet to make profit from it. :)

Inu_Ranma@yahoo.com for comments/suggestions, all are welcome :]

Thanx to my prereaders for this third revision for this chapter:

Reddjango, Devil_Sword, Sunlord, 

Special thanx to teh guy who helped me Ubermuch:

Xaldaran

Very very special thanx to My one and only true love (also a prereader)

Riyousha.

baibai till next chapter or rewrite :]


	2. Memoirs Part 2: Memoirs of a Woman (Fina...

Twenty months..  
It took twenty months before I saw my Ranchan again, and it seemed that each one took another decade off of my life..  
Akane and I looked everywhere. As Herb dropped by my grill every once in a while to give us information,  
it became obvious that the dragon felt that he was to blame for whatever happened, but he refused to tell us what it was.  
So we searched.  
Our first big find was with the policeman who arrested Ranchan. He was not the brightest of fellows, and we had to travel all the way to the Central Kyoto Police station just to see him. Apparently he was visiting a cousin of his or something in Nerima. He directed us to the Tokyo board of corrections, and that's where the fun began.  
We spent sixteen months looking for any news on Saotome Ranma, and then Herb came up with something.  
A small document, certain parts were whited out from the copies he gave us, and he refused to say why, except that it was for our own good. A sweet gesture, but Akane's mallet didn't think so.  
The file contained the records of a person who, within the first three days at an unnamed facility, blew a door off of the hinges, got zapped frequently, and became the captain of the Kenpo team.  
Herb offered to take us there, but we had to promise that we would not look at the sign naming the facility.  
This was all grating on my nerves as well as Akane's but we accepted. We had to.  
When we entered the facility, it was very...clean.  
Herb approached the bored-looking receptionist as she looked up in surprise  
"We're here to see Saotome."  
"Let's see....would that be Saotome Ran-"  
"Yes. That Saotome." Herb seemed to be straining. "How long will it be?"  
"We can have her in the meeting room in fifteen minutes," The receptionist started making calls.  
"You mean him...right?" Akane asked confusedly.  
"No, Ma'am. this facility is, by nature, women only, except for the staff, which on the inside is all male."  
We turned slowly towards Herb.  
"Okay...what's up, Dragon...what happened to Ranchan?" I was the first to speak up.  
"Please, tell us. I'm tired, and I want to know what happened that day." Akane looked as if she was bordering on tears.  
"The day of Ranma's arrest, a letter from me arrived, warning him that two very precious artifacts of mine had been stolen. I believe you know of these artifacts, Tendo-san."  
Akane gasped.  
"What? What happened?" I was completely in the dark. What could have happened to Ranma?   
Akane calmly explained the horror of the Kaisui-Fuu and the Chisuiton to me.  
"Oh...gods."  
"But Happousai destroyed the kettle...it's remains were all over our dojo, Herb!" Akane gasped as she grasped the meaning of her own words and shot Herb a frightened look.  
Herb looked slightly angry.  
"The Ranma we see here may not be the Ranma we once knew, and I believe it is time to test that theory."  
We entered the door that the receptionist opened for us.  
"The third door on the right," the woman drawled, quickly hurrying back to her post.  
  
* * *  
  
Memoirs. Part 2: Memoirs of a Woman.  
  
After the fight with Yoiko, she, Sera and I quickly became great friends. Yoiko even asked me to teach her Kenpo, which I graciously accepted, minus a few of my more...dangerous techniques.  
In return, I asked Yoiko, who was very smart, to help me with the classes in various subjects we were taught each day.  
I knew I was losing my grip on my manhood...but I slowly stopped caring. I knew Akane wouldn't want me anymore, and that Ukyo's honor had been satisfied...I just hoped that, when I got out, there would be somebody there for me.  
Doc Izzy helped me a lot.  
After the initial meeting, he treated me as if all that had `supposedly' happened is true, because, as he explained it, even if I had hallucinated it, virtual problems in the mind would become real, to the mind, and create the same complexes as if it had been real.  
The doc helped me learn the one thing that had got me into this place by not being there.  
Prudence.  
I learned when to, and not to fight, when to, and not to kill (which is always, the doc said), and when to not insert my foot, and Hokkaido, into my mouth.  
The two years passed slowly, and I slowly gave up every last shred of my manhood, except for the art, and my `orientation.'  
I never dreamt, that on January 5th, 2000, they would come for me.  
When they called for me, I was training, as usual, with Yoiko.  
When they said that I had a visitor I nearly lost my control and hurt Yoiko.  
"You know who it is, don't you." The older-seeming girl asked, sympathetically.  
"H-hai...I think so..."  
"Do you want me to come with you?"  
"Hai."  
  
* * *  
  
When I walked into the room, on the other side of the clear wall were two redheaded girls, one with short-cut hair and bangs in the front, the other with slightly longer hair, but no bangs, a hairstyle that would've suited a boy just as well.  
A boy...  
"Ranma...?"  
"It's Ranko, now," she was obviously having trouble breathing.  
I leaned up against the glass where she was, but she still remained somehow distant, not the man I had known, and loved.  
"So...is it true then? Are you really...stuck?"  
The girl I thought I knew nodded slowly.  
"Akane...Ranma died in my fourth day here, maybe even earlier. Aside from the art I have not even a shred of the past I left behind."  
Ukyo chose this time to speak up.  
"Not even us...?"  
Ranma...no...Ranko clutched the hand of the girl behind her.  
"I'll never forget you two. Ukyo...you were my best friend, and you, Akane, were my love. I still do love both of you, but the fear that you could no longer love me began to drown even that out over time."  
"So it's true..." came the quiet implication of surprise from the other girl.  
Ranko quietly stood up and kissed her on the cheek.  
Suddenly the door bust open and a rather young-looking Japanese doctor burst into the room.  
"Ohayo, Izzy-sama," Ranma said with an affectionate smile, forgetting the drama of the moment for a bit. "What's the news?"  
"Ranko and Yoiko...it gives me great pleasure to announce that you two will be released from our facilities at the end of this month." The doctor was beaming with pride and joy. "I wish you two the best of luck, and would like to notify you that full use of the building's phones are yours to call anybody you may need to, to find a place to sta-"  
The doctor halted as he noticed Ukyo and I standing there.  
He gave a meaningful look to Ranko.  
"So, Ranko...do you have somebody to call?"  
"Her place is already set up," Ukyo said.  
Ranko broke out in a smile.  
"Oh, Ucchan...thank you so much!"  
She halted...  
"Um...can my friend come too?"  
Yoiko looked surprised.  
"Ne, Ranko...these types and I don't mix...I'll come visit later. And besides, from what I hear this chef makes some great Okonomiyaki."  
  
* * *  
  
We quickly made arrangements to move into Ucchan's and chatted about how much fun it would be. But Akane looked sad, and I knew why.  
I couldn't tell them everything, because if they knew of my vengeance, they would try and stop me, and I could not let that happen.  
I would have my vengeance.  
  
* * *  
From the diary of Matsui Yoiko.   
January passed like a flash, and I had never seen Ranko so happy, but I also noticed that she seemed to be preparing herself for something, more determined than ever to live her life, I guessed at the time.  
Prompted by this, I set up shop in Nerima and found a Job, not telling Ranko. I thought it more prudent, for the moment, to watch from afar.  
Ranko and I had great fun setting up her record. and we managed to even give another chance at college by setting her up as a 16-year old in high school, which was ironically where she started when she first came to Nerima.  
It hadn't taken more than the first of those two years to realize that Ranko wasn't aging.  
Unfortunately, that meant that we couldn't just pass Ranko off as 18 and have her take the entrance exams.  
So back to Fuurinkan Ranko went, four years later then when she started.  
This seemed to make her smile even more.  
  
* * *  
  
It was so weird to return to Nerima.  
Last time I trod these streets, I couldn't walk ten feet without being challenged to some duel.  
Now it was so...peaceful.  
Granted, last time I trod these streets I wore neither a dress, nor panties and a bra.  
I considered visiting the Nekohanten before I had initially planned to, but figured that it could wait, being the only trip I would probably make in the next few weeks that was for pleasure.  
I casually checked my purse to assure that my money was still there. I had accumulated a sum of money, a sum that would even have caused Nabiki to blush, from the betting pools on the numerous Kenpo matches I won in the Ward.  
My first order of business was to doff the cotton gown as soon as possible, as it wasn't as comfortable as clothing could get, I was sure, and I really wanted to try a sun dress.  
I immediately entered a clothing store and found a nice, inexpensive green sundress and a nice straw hat, paid for them, entered the dressing room, and put them on.  
Liking the feel of the dress, I bought a few others in assorted colors and a nice black pair of slippers, as well as some heals, because I was feeling adventurous, and they could have come in handy.  
That being done, I headed the rest of the way to Ucchan's.  
  
* * *  
  
When I entered Ucchan's I immediately felt at home, the grill hadn't changed at all in the last two years, which reminded me, I needed to get a job.  
Ukyo was tending to some customers, so I sat at the counter and waited patiently.  
After the small rush of hungry salarymen receded, Ucchan came to greet me.  
"Ranchan! How was your trip? I love the dress!" her voice seemed a bit strained as she mentioned the dress.  
"Fine, thank you, Ucchan."  
"Good! When I agreed to be your guardian your probation officer gave me some stuff, Ranchan. You won't believe that I'm supposed to have you `in bed' at 9 PM every night!" Ukyo took a sultry tone of voice. "Would you like me to tuck you in too, sugar?" At which point she dissolved into giggles.   
I gave my friend the benifit of a congenial chuckle. "Well, Ucchan...it's good to be back. and interesting to be sixteen again."  
"About that, Ranchan...your friend set your sixteenth birthday as February 24th in your records...I think that she really wanted you to have a fresh start. So we're going to invite a few friends, none of the Tendos except for Akane, to come and visit, and we'll introduce `Ranko.'  
I nodded, not wanting to let Ucchan know my plans for the next few days, and went to the bedroom to find a drawer for my things.  
  
* * *  
  
It took months for me to get over what I had done.  
I had effectively killed my child, sentenced him to a prison where it was certain he'd never be released. Never released with any luck, that is.  
For a while I dreamt that he came back, and he killed me, but I could always laugh that dream off, for the very reason for which he was gone was the reason for which he could never appear.  
I was safe.  
My son was dead.  
My husband was kissing the ground at my feet after I found out about the panda, and was always so subservient. I enjoyed him that way. No more running around chasing prospective suitors and potentially causing dishonor to my family for that bloated moron. Oh no. He was going to stay right at home, and give me another child to blank out the dishonor of the previous disappointment.  
But I still had the dreams of my son, long dead, castrated by fate.  
And in every dream, he killed me.  
I always felt the pain of that death, and knew by the very spirit of the blade that shot through my gut that it was by my own family's blade.  
And so did I await the coming of my son, for though I did not know it my heart did. Though I felt no remorse for effectively killing him that day, I have died every night these past two years for my cowardly ways. I have come to await what fate may bring.  
  
* * *  
  
I slipped into the house as quietly as a duck, or perhaps a pig, but most definitely not as quietly as a cat.  
Assuming it was the right house, I would have my vengeance this night, and two years of planning would come to fruition.  
I navigated the hallways of the modest home and came to the master bedroom, and realized that I was most definitely in the right place, for there, lying in the bed, were my two progenitors, no doubt revelling in the restfulness following the act that they must have thought would relieve them of the memory of their mistake. Me.  
I tore my cowl off to let my hair roam free, the hair of which I was so proud, the hair which I protested every moment until I actually had it, then I loved it.  
  
***  
  
"Come on, Ranko! You'll love it!" Yoiko chimed in as I sat in the barber's chair in the ward.  
"Pigtails are out of style, Ranko-san!" Sera seemed to be a bit bouncier than usual today.  
The style they had picked out for me looked like a boy's...but perhaps that would be good if I ever got cured of this. The problem was, that at the same time...it looked so feminine.  
I slowly nodded my head and shut my eyes, and awaited the cut, while clutching the Dragon's Whisker tightly in my right hand. Not that I needed it any more, but it sometimes felt to me as if it was my only connection to my manhood.  
There was, obviously, no pain.  
When I opened my eyes the other two girls positioned me in front of a mirror.  
What I saw nearly made me fall out of the chair.  
Looking back at me was a beautiful sixteen-year old girl, even if I was nineteen, with short-cut hair, pouting lips, and a great body.  
"What a difference a pigtail makes..." Yoiko breathed in my ear.  
"Cut that out!" I smiled. Maybe this wasn't so bad...  
Sera immediately gave me a playful glomp as the three of us broke down into laughter, enjoying the moment and the birth of a new me.  
  
Just a few weeks later, there was a heavy silence over the Ward. Something was wrong.  
I awoke to my well-earned white sheets to complete lack of sound. Literally nothing was happening, so I got up, slipped on a robe, and exited my room.  
In the hallway, a few girls were leaning against a wall near my room, chatting idly. They seemed to be as uneasy as I was, but they still offered me a warm smile as I gave a wary glance around the hallway.  
"Where is everybody?" Despite the fact that it was late morning and there were propably very few people asleep, I whispered anyway. Maybe it was simply the morose atmosphere in the ward that caused me too be that way.  
One of the two conversing girls silently pointed to the door that led into the primary bath house and returned to her conversation.  
As I opened the door to the bath house, I came face-to-pectorals of one of the large orderlies that populated the ward during assemblies and emergencies.  
Emergency. For some reason this set off my internal alarms. Something was wrong.  
I excused myself quietly and attempted to push my way past the guard, but he simply raised one hamhand and shook his head, giving me not his usual icy glare, but a piteous, sympathetic look.  
I tried to push in to the bath house again, still remaining silent, and this time the guard used a little more force, knocking me to the floor.  
As he pushed me the second time, I got a glance behind him and saw red. A very familiar red. Blood.  
I increased my efforts tenfold and eventually pushed past the guard, only to lay my eyes upon a scene that was surely straight out of nightmares.  
Lying in the corner of the bath, inert and pale, was Arashi Sera.  
The look in her eyes was anything but the glazed vacancy that people always described as being associated with death, but a pallid, sorrowful stare, betraying the insecurity that my friend must have been feeling, and yet broadcasting that Sera must have wanted this, for she looked so...peaceful.  
She had been so cheerful. Was that all a mask?  
Finally, I was able to tear my gaze to my friend's body. She had been dead for hours. What once was a beautiful, and yet modest figure had been shrivelled by the water as it drained its life into that same water in some sick form of revenge.  
Finally, I looked at Sera's wrists and saw the large wedges of glass that were embedded in them and accepted that my friend had died.  
A hand gently gripped my shoulder and pulled me back, it was Yoiko.  
"She was hurt in ways that we could not imagine, Ranko."  
Yoiko pulled me into a warm embrace, expecting the tears that never came. There would be no tears.  
I envied Sera for her fate, but knew that I could not succumb to it.  
  
***  
  
I drew closer to the bed in a few moments that could have been hours as I brooded upon the life that had brought me here..  
My time was at hand.  
I slowly pulled the little can with a horn on the end out of my blouse pocket and, with all of the subtlety of Ryoga asking a girl on a date, I pressed the little button on the air-horn.  
Nodoka and Genma, for they surely did not care enough to be called Mother and Father by me, anymore, both jumped out of the bed in surprise.  
"I'm sorry...did I interrupt anything?"  
Genma was the first to speak. Apparently he had either gained courage since we last met, or wasn't coherent enough to run away.  
"Who are you, little girl? This is a private home."  
"Indeed, child. Have you no manners?"  
"Awww...you mean you don't remember your dear little Daughter?"  
I will never forget the fear I saw in their eyes, for it was the best thing that had happened to me in the past two years.  
"Ran-ma..." Genma managed to croak out before fainting.  
"Now that is the old man I grew to know and loathe." I couldn't resist one of my old savage grins.  
"I knew you'd come, Ranma." Nodoka said calmly.  
I drove into a rage, within an inch of Nodoka's nose before she could speak.  
"Don't you dare call me that!" I fumed. "You killed Ranma on that day two years ago. Do you remember that? Don't you remember saying `my son is dead,' because I sure as hell do! I died that day, but I was reborn."  
Indeed. I had died so many times...  
  
* * *  
  
As we stood over the casket, I vowed for Sera's sake that I would cry for her when I regained my honor, for surely these tears were not fit for her grave. Perhaps I was only telling myself that. Either way, it didn't seem to help the feeling I'd had in my gut since seeing my friend's corpse sit in that bathtub. I could hardly be expected to be enjoying this though...right?  
As some random Catholic priest recited prayers to morn a woman who he never new, I searched the funeral for Yoiko, but for some reason she was nowhere to be found. I thought she had been Sera's friend too.  
As I left the burial ground, neatly situated just a few blocks from the Ward, I recieved a tap on my shoulder. I knew exactly who it was.  
"Why weren't you there, Yoiko? Wasn't she your friend too?"  
Yoiko nodded solemnly. "Priests and I don't get along very well, Ranchan. I visited the grave after that old crow left."  
Suddenly a gnarled hand gripped my shoulder and frankly scared the hell out of me, which was ironic, considering it was the priest.  
"It will end, Saotome Ranko. It will end soon."  
I never knew whether I dreamt that or not. I guess I did, in hindsight, because the next thing I remember was waking up in a bed in the ward.  
  
* * *  
  
"What are you going to do?"  
"Don't worry. I'm not going to kill you. I decided long ago that death was too good for you. I have come only to let you know that I am back, I am alive, and that I want my sword."  
"No...of all things...why take our family's honor?"  
"Because you destroyed that honor. You besmirched our family name when you abandoned your son, when you abandoned your daughter to Hell." I was crying now, something I had not done in my memory. This meeting was not going as I had planned.  
"You were no longer my son. and I raised no daughter."  
  
* * *  
  
"So tell me about your parents." The doc must have not been thinking that morning.  
"I have no parents." This seemed to confuse him.  
"Then who bred you? Who educated you?"  
"Saotome Genma, and I was borne from Saotome Nodoka." I knew where this was going.  
"And what makes them 'not' your parents?"  
"They disowned me."  
The doctor waited a moment, seeming to barely take this all in. "So what's keeping you from earning reentry into your clan?"  
"I don't want to go back. In going back I become what I was. When's Izzy going to get here?"  
"He's sick. He wants me to sub for him."  
"You're doing a shitty job."  
It was fun to see the doctor so riled up. I grinned as I noticed him counting to ten under his breath  
"Anyway..." he was nervous. Good. I wanted Izzy back. "What about your friends?"  
It was my turn to be uncomfortable. "I...had a fiance..."  
The doctor's eyes lit up as if he had found something important. "Good...what else?"  
"Well, pretty much every other person in Nerima Ward was out to either kill me, marry me, or both."  
The doctor began scribbling madly on his notepad.  
"I see. And have you ever killed anybody?"  
"Twice. Well..sort of."  
"Howso?"  
"There's the one you know about, the old pervert, and there's one, this demigod I wasted a few years back, but he came back to life."  
The doctor finally looked up from his doubtless all-important notes and gave me an odd stare.  
"I think our time's up, Miss Saotome."  
I gave him my best cutie smile and walked out the door.  
  
* * *  
  
I managed to regain some composure.  
"Give me the blade"  
"You will pry it from my dead hands!"  
I grabbed the blade before she could blink and held it on my hands, arms straight out and palms facing up.  
"I hereby proclaim that Saotome Nodoka, former mistress of the Clan Saotome is unfit in her guidance of her family..."  
"No! Please, Ranma!"  
"...for in her dishonor she has dishonored her entire family. And so shall this blade be broken, to be forged anew when the clan Saotome is once again ready to rise. Or shall it be buried with the last surviving member of it's clan. She who sullied it's perfection."  
By the time I snapped the blade into two pieces Saotome Nodoka was in hysterics, her heart broken. I turned away from the broken woman to face Genma, the monster of a man seeming to have recovered.  
"Return when you have regained our honor, and I shall be proud to call you daughter."  
"Regain your honor when I have returned, and I shall accept you as an adequate father," I said with a smirk, and with that I left.  
  
* * *  
  
I have failed my family.  
I have not protected my blade.  
I have wronged my only son, my only daughter.  
I have, more or less, been given invitation to Seppuku by she who was my heir.  
I stare at what remains of the blade.  
Jaded, I pull out my tanto, still thankfully in one piece. I hold the small blade to my throat and ask my husband to second me.  
My husband, curse his heart, denies me my peace.  
I begin to beg futilely, and finally Genma speaks.  
"No, Nodoka. She said she would come back, our honor can be restored, but not until penance is done."  
  
* * *  
  
Some have said that revenge cannot satiate the heart, but I found that it worked out rather well.  
I had one more visit to make, then I would be able to make due with what I had, and live my life.  
  
* * *  
  
That night...I awoke screaming.  
I had the dream again...but it was so more real.  
Ucchan sat up in her bed as I stood up and crept out the door to the bathroom to rinse my face off.  
When I looked up from the sink Akane was behind me, and Ukyo behind her.  
"Ranchan...what's wrong?" Ukyo said softly. "You probably woke up the entire neighborhood with that scream...it sounded as if you were dying.  
"I was..." I managed to say.  
  
* * *  
  
We sat Ranko down upon the bed, and I guess it was at that point that I realized that the cocky boy I once new was dead. Here was a frightened, lost girl.  
"Ranko-chan. What's wrong?" I instinctively used the -chan with Ranma.  
She told us.  
"Gods...and you've been having this dream since you went to the `Ward,'" Ukyo said.  
Ranko nodded slowly, her bottom lip quivering.  
"And t-this time it was more real than any of the others..."  
Thinking of nothing better to do, I gently put my arm around Ranma and held her close.  
She slowly leaned on me and fell asleep.  
I looked up to Ukyo for help.  
"She's yours, Akane...you deal with her," Ukyo said with a joking, yet sad smile.  
"Ukyo...Ucchan..."  
I slowly picked Ranko up, not knowing what else to do, and took her into my room, but as I tried to set her onto my bed I found that she wouldn't disengage.  
I sighed and cuddled the young girl, at least in body, close.  
  
* * *  
  
When I awoke, I was severely tangled with Akane.  
Oh Shit, Oh Shit, Oh Shit...She's going to kill me!  
As I tried to unwrap my arms from their death grip around her Akane opened her eyes.  
"Ne...Ranko...no racket, please. You kept Ukyo and I up late last night."  
I nodded, confused, and disentangled the rest of the way.  
As I was leaving the room, Akane sat up and giggled.  
"Ranko, dear," I winced at being called this "pull your slip down; your panties are showing."  
I could swear I was blushing in my toes  
"You may have learned to be female, but you still have the modesty of a bakana pervert..."  
I quietly gave the slip a tug and went into Ukyo's room to change.  
As I entered, Ukyo fixed me with a level stare and closed the door behind us.  
"What's going on, Ranma?"  
I went to my drawer and pulled out a sundress and some underthings.  
"What do you mean?"  
Ukyo turned on the small TV in the corner of her room, which was running an action news report, live from the southwest quarter of Nerima.  
"And here we are, at the house of Saotome Nodoka, the woman who allegedly turned herself into the police this morning, claiming that she had attempted Harakiri last night, and wished to be admitted to the Kyoto Woman's Ward as soon as possible.   
Her husband, Genma, gave only one comment, saying that his wife would be spending a few months in the ward, as a favor from a friend, in order to repent and regain her family's honor. Interestingly enough, the Ward is the same place where the girl who is accused for the death of her son, a Jane Doe who was unavailable for questioning, served a recent two-year term in the ward, with time off for good behavior, and was the captain of the Kenpo team. And now for a message from our Sponsor, Pocky-BZZT!"  
Ukyo turned the television off.  
"What part did you have in this?"  
"Well I'll be..." is all I could manage.  
"Damn it, Ranko! You're not some headstrong kid anymore! You've been in trouble with the law once already, and I will not have you jeopardizing your life again, do you understand me?"  
"Ukyo, you're starting to sound like my mother would..."  
She slapped me. Not hard, but enough to let me know what I had just said.  
"Don't you dare compare me to that bitch, Ranchan. I spent two years of my life searching for you under every possible stone. I may not be able to give you the love that Akane can, but I still love you, and I need you, for me, to play it safe, just this once, until things clear up for us, okay?"  
"Ucchan...I never realized."  
"Well you'd damn well better start thinking actively, Ranchan. You may be just a teen to the rest of the world, but there are a few people who still know you and care about you, and Akane and I are among them."  
"I just need one more visit, Ucchan. No violence, no killing, not a bruise. I promise."  
"Okay, Ranchan."  
Ukyo seemed to cheer up almost instantly.  
"Okay. We have a big day planned. We have to buy you some school uniforms today, so get ready to do some shopping!"  
  
* * *  
  
When we were done shopping I had five new outfits, as well as three sets of gym clothes.  
On our way back to Ucchan's we started to pass by the Ono clinic.  
I stopped.  
"Ranchan..." Ukyo warned softly.  
"It's okay, Ukyo. I'd like to say hi to Tofu and see if he remembers me"  
Without another word I entered the clinic.  
The drawing room of the Ono clinic was surprisingly neat and kempt, and as I entered I noticed that there had been a doorbell installed.  
Thinking of no better way to introduce myself once again, I rang the bell.  
"Hello?" Came the call from inside the clinic. The door buzzed open, another new addition. "Come on in!"  
I cautiously entered the clinic to find Dr. Tofu sitting there on his stool, the same as ever, except with a bit shorter hair, and a much larger smile than I had ever seen him with.  
"Well...Hi there!" I couldn't believe it. The doc didn't recognize me.  
I slowly sat down in front if him and put on the kawaii act, much perfected from last time I had seen Doctor Tofu.  
"Hello, Tofu-sama...I hear that you're the best doctor in Nerima ward, and I was hoping you'd be my physician."  
Ukyo appeared in the door and started giggling. Tofu looked at her in surprise, and then did a double-take as he looked back at me.  
"What are you doing here, Ukyo-...Oh. I see. Why the kawaii act, Ranma?"  
I nodded slowly and dropped the act, noting that there wasn't as much dropping to do as before.  
"How much do you know of what happened, Dr. Tofu?"  
"I'm going to have to assume you mean with the incident with Happousai, Ranm-"  
"Ranko. It's Ranko now. Ranma is dead."  
"...Ranko." Tofu continued smoothly on. "I examined the body afterwards and confirmed the death, and, if it wasn't for the signature breaks in each bone being your own fists, I would've not believed it was you. When I offered to clear up the identity with the many blood samples I have here, your mother declined DNA testing, saying she never had a daughter. Though I thought this odd, I could do nothing, as that is most definitely her choice. The last I heard of you, for I did try and keep track, you were a Jane Doe that was being transferred to the Kyoto Woman's Ward. I lost track of you soon after, as said Jane Doe disappeared."  
"Well, doc. You have most of the story. What you may not know is that Happousai used the chisuiton on me before he died. and I'm locked in this form, presumably for the rest of my natural life."  
Tofu seemed to be taking this rather well.  
"If you need to, Ran...ko. I will be here to talk to always."  
I made a formal bow.  
"Thank you, doctor Tofu, I would be honored to accept not only your advice, but your physical care as well."  
With that I left, having made a new friend for the second time.  
  
* * *  
  
After the visit to Tofu's Ranko seemed more at ease. But something about her still scared me. she was much stronger physically, much more powerful of an artist than she had ever been. Not only this, but she was also much more sophisticated than Ranma had ever been. Yes. She scared me. She even frustrated me, because in her assurance of the success of her plans she was becoming the exact image of the petulant girls who populated her apparent age group.  
The sooner this was over, the better.  
  
* * *  
  
I approached the Tendo dojo on padded feet and knocked on the back door. As Soun Tendo approached the door I made sure all of my coverings were in place  
"What can I do for you?" Tendo looked and sounded much more...drawn.  
"I have come to offer a warning, Soun Tendo."  
"Who are you?"  
I allowed him to see my vicious smile as I removed my cowl.  
"Remember me, coward?"  
"Hello, Ranma."  
"Wrong. Ranma is dead. I'm Ranko."  
"Whatever. What do you have to say? Say it and leave a broken man to himself."  
"Pardon? You still have all of your daughters, do you not?"  
"Hardly. After Akane left, Nabiki was too disgusted to speak to me, and so went to start a trading house in Central Tokyo, while Kasumi went to live with Doctor Tofu. I've been alone for a year now."  
At the look of the old man, I softened.  
"You've taken more punishment than I could ever give, Tendo-kun."  
"Regardless. I deserve your contempt as well."  
"I think not. Instead of my original plans I would instead offer my services as an instructor at your dojo. I will even offer to attempt to get your daughters to speak with you again."  
The hope that shone in the man's eyes was enough to make me want to dance.  
"Saotome Ranko, your mercy does an old fool kindness."  
I bowed, and, without another word, left the Tendo dojo.  
  
* * *  
  
I went home, during daylight, and entered the restaurant.  
As I entered I saw, to my surprise, Akane cooking Okonomiyaki right alongside Ukyo.  
"Akane! Did you learn to cook? That's fantastic!"  
I got some appraising looks from customers.  
Akane gave me a curt nod and continued flipping her Okonomiyaki.  
I yawned and headed upstairs.  
Despite the early time, I was exhausted, so I headed straight for my bedroll.  
On it was lying a small book, bound in red leather with a very intricate Celtic-cross looking design on it. as opened the book I found that the pages were all blank, except for the first page, on which was printed two very small, very intricate words.  
"Saotome Ranko."  
I smiled delightedly and began to write.  
  
* * *  
  
I am Saotome Ranko and I am...a Woman.  
Well...sort of.  
When I initially looked back on it, the last two years of my life seemed to be a comparative hell. I had lost what I considered to be my humanity. Little did I know that what I then considered to be my Humanity was in fact my manhood.  
I wasn't always a woman. In fact, I spent most of my life as a man. You see, there as this curse...  
  
* * *  
  
Akane and I looked in to see Ranchan lying on her bedroll, feet kicking playfully in the air, writing in the diary we got her that day. I gently pressed my finger over my lips and went back downstairs to make myself some dinner.  
It looked as if Ranchan had finally found her center.  
  
* * *   
  
I lingered a moment after Ukyo went downstairs. I guess I was still anxious to find whether Ranma was still there, somewhere in that petite, feminine frame. I guess I was just looking for the man I loved.  
I knew he would come back, though.  
He had to.  
Nobody defeats Ranma Saotome!  
But, then again. Was Ranma really defeated, or was this just a sort of metamorphosis?  
Had I lost a lover?  
Could I bring myself to love what he...she had become?  
I hoped so. I hoped to all of the gods.  
Was this really my love?  
In this body of little more than a child?  
  
* * *  
  
I watched Great-grandson for a few days. But perhaps it wasn't appropriate for me to call her that anymore, as I certainly had no cure for her.  
So she wasn't aging, fascinating.  
I would have to consult the others.  
Shampoo would be very interested in this new development.  
  
* * *  
  
The Eyes of the Snake are watching, forgotten,  
  
the debt has yet to be paid, misbegotten.  
  
The Eyes of the Dragon are aware, unafraid.  
  
We always pay our Debts. Our Debts are ALWAYS Paid.  
  
* * *  
  
Disclaimer:  
The Ranma characters aren't mine, and I don't make money from them  
They're Rumiko Takahashi's (She's an Animé goddess), in case you don't know.  
The other characters are mine, and I don't make money from then either.  
But if money is made by them...it'd better be made by me :p  
cool, huh?  
  
Very special thanx to Figment, Siaru, and Riyousha for making this revision possible.  
  
C&C are welcome.  
  
Inu-Ranma  
Inu_Ranma@Yahoo.com 


	3. Memoirs part 3: Memoirs of a God (Final ...

Memoirs Part 3: Memoirs of a God.

Have you ever had that dream where you're attending your own funeral? Well...imagine that being a reality and you have my current situation, For here I am, kneeling at the grave of one Saotome Ranma, missing and presumed dead nineteen months ago to the day, June 1st, 1998.

Saotome Ranma died long before that.

Here I was, reading his epitaph. In a way, I was the one who killed Ranma. In a way I was a daughter to him, in some ways a sister. But when it all comes down to it, I was him.

"To our Warrior, who lived in honor, and died fighting his shame"

I wondered how long it took Nodoka to think that up. I wondered where she managed to come up with tears. Maybe she was crying for her family's honor, which would be especially ironic, as she was the one who sullied it.

As I read the epitaph another grave caught my eyes and I nearly facefaulted.

A man who I still recognized, now assumably 22 years old, and looking better for it, was kneeling in front of a tomb that was extravagant it worst. Printed in bold, gilded letters across the tomb, upon which was mounted a statue that one would assume must be that of some goddess of love was "Osage-No-Onna, declared lost on the same day as her captor, 6-01-98."

"I don't die that easily, pervert..." 

Kuno stood slowly. "I would prefer not to hear such language in the presence of the departed and honored m-...m-....my gods, you're beautiful. You look just like she did!"

"Who would that be, Kuno-sempai?"

"That's Kuno-sensei to you, miss. And I speak of my love who was lost to me so long ago."

I sighed and began to try and explain this to Kuno, in the hopes that his assumably adult mind would assimilate the information. "Kuno. The pigtailed girl was never yours to begin with. She wasn't even Ranma's, and she is -not- dead."

"Quoth Saotome Nodoka: 'she essentially committed suicide when she killed Saotome.' My love is dead."

"Are you blind as well as dumb, Kuno? Look at me, damn you!"

The former upperclassman looked up, and revealed his face to me. I could not help but gasp as I noticed the scar below his left eye. "Do not jest at my disability, girl. I am not one of whom you would make an enemy. In my foolishness I attempted to do as the honorable Oedipus did, Fortunately, my sister, crazed as she was, stopped me. This scar is the memory of the day my heart was torn out, the day I lost my love."

"Kuno. This is the only time I will tell you this. The pigtailed girl did not love you. She never did. And She never will. Her heart belongs to no man, but she does remember you, but never with fondness. Why don't you, instead of brooding over a love you never had, try to make things better for her sake, or, even better, for your own sake."

"How do you know this, young one?"

"You could say we're kindof sisters."

Kuno nodded. "Then I shall do as you say." He lifted the best-looking bouquet of flowers from the steps of the tomb. "Do take these, child, and tell me your name, for I feel you have done me some great service."

"Saotome Ranko, Kuno, and you'd damn well not forget it."

With that I left, leaving the former fool to his thoughts.

* * *

I couldn't believe it!

My goddess was alive!

I was ecstatic, to say the least.

But what the child told me, that was important as well. 

The goddess was not mine to have, and never would be. So I would have to make do with what I had.

I would have to go on.

Saotome Ranko. Things finally began to fit together.

I had a distinct feeling that I would see this girl again.

* * *

"I never want to see that idiot again!" Ranko was still going on about it.

"Calm down, honey...it's not like he actually hit on you this time, at least. And it sounds as if you actually got a message through to him." I made a warding-off motion with my hands

'Please don't call me that, Ucchan! It makes me sound like a raving teenage girl!"

I simply gestured at Ranko and said, "If the shoe fits..."

Ranko, realizing what she was doing, began to calm down. "Thanks, Ucchan."

"...Speaking of wayward children...do you know why you aren't aging, Ranchan?"

"I don't know, Ucchan. I have to assume it's either some side effect of the curse or the Chisuiton. but my cursed form always looked the same anyway."

"Maybe it's time you visited Cologne, Ranma..." I called her by her true name, hoping to get through to her better judgement.

"I believe that is my cue," the old mummy scared Ranko half to death as she landed in the middle of the room, out of nowhere, pogoing on her cane "Well...I thought it was you, granddaughter. As level-headed as ever, I see." She gave a withered chuckle.

"I assume that to mean that you have no cure for me, mummy?"

"For the curse, certainly not. I have no Nannichuan water, and you are on probation, and are prohibited from leaving Japan. Am I right?" 

Ranko simply nodded.

"I will try to remedy that, and I will also attempt to counteract the lack of aging, but you must in turn do something for me."

"And what would that be?" Ranko suddenly looked on edge.

"I want you to join my tribe." 

Ranko did a double-take to make sure the old crone wasn't joking. "What? Why?"

"Simple, Saotome-san. You are the strongest warrior for many generations past. With your blood intermingled in our tribe we would become many times more powerful. Second: You have defeated one of our most skilled warriors, and nearly bested the Matriarch in battle, and I don't want to have to give you the kiss of death."

The old crone gently put out her third finger and stared levelly at Ranko.

"And...third?" Ranko said, curious.

"You defeated Happousai. Not even I was able to best that pervert in a one-on-one battle, and you not only beat him, you literally slaughtered him." Ranma winced "I do not want you as an enemy. I would much prefer you as a student."

Ranko nodded slowly. 

"I accept your invitation, Matriarch, with the simple request that I am allowed to remain in Nerima Ward."

"Granted, granddaughter, but there is to be no killing."

"I can only guarantee that, if there is killing done, that the killer shall not be me."

* * *

For once, I was actually happy to see Shampoo, and for once she was not glomping me on sight.

"Hello, Shampoo."

"You're not Ranma anymore, are you?" Her Japanese had improved, as had her perception of the situation at hand.

"I can't say I am. Is that a ring I see on your finger?"

Shampoo smiled genuinely. "Mousse challenged me last June and finally won. He's been training very hard.

"Hello, Ranma." Mousse said with a bit of malice. I hadn't even noticed him approaching, but he was exuding no battle aura whatsoever, so I had no worries.

"Not Ranma. Ranma is dead. This Ranko." Shampoo said with a bit of a twitch.

Mousse looked confused for a second as I stood up.

"Congrats on the engagement, Muu-muu-chan. I'll be glad to give you a rematch, soon. I can't promise one of our man-to-man battles from way back then, but I can promise that I have also trained, and therefore will give you a run for your money."

"Great-Grandmother said that you are now a member of the tribe, Ranko. This is a great honor, you know?" Shampoo made an attempt to change the subject.

"I know, Shampoo. I just wish it had happened on better circumstances."

"Like what, Ranma? You and I both know you never would have married me."

I headed for the door. "This is getting uncomfortable. Get one thing straight, Ranma is no more. I am Saotome Ranko."

I left it at that and promptly exited the Nekohanten. I would return soon, but I needed time to cool off, and I had other loose ends to tie up.

* * *

"Ranko...you have to go to school! If you don't your probation officer will get on my case!"

"I will, Ucchan. As soon as I..."

"No, Ranko. You will attend school starting this next Monday. It's the start of the Semester and you'll be able to fit in in no time. Just do it, please."

"Fine, Ucchan, Monday. I promise. I'll be done with my business by then anyway."

Ranko had resigned to her fate, thankfully. She had been running all over town for the last three days, and with the episode with Kuno, she seemed to be losing her stability. I could only hope that seeing the faces of some of the teachers would help her, as I was nowhere near suited to mother a sixteen-year old girl, much less one who was in fact a few months older than I was, despite looks.

"But I'm not wearing one of those Sailor Fukus!" Ranko shouted with a playful grin.

"Fine," I said. "You can go in your bloomers!"

By the time we stopped laughing Akane had come up to see what the commotion was.

"Hey...guys. What's the fuss?"

"Nothing, Akane...Ranko was just discussing the finer points of the Furinkan uniforms with me." I couldn't help but burst into more giggles.

"Fine...okay" Akane nodded distantly and headed for her bedroom.

Something was, once again, up.

* * *

From teh diary of Tendo Akane

I had to brood, to think about it.

Everything was so good. I was with my love, and she admitted her love to me, finally, for good, and I had to recoansider my own heart.

Why was I always such a fool about these things?

Damn.

It all just seemed to tie back to the way I saw her when she was holding Happosai in her arms, not the embrace of lover's that I had always dreamed of her sharing with me, but as if she was unwillingly holding some disgusting pile of refuse that she could not remove from her hands.

Was that filth still there?

Would the blood ever wash away?

I guess it's strange when I think about it. Most people just accept death and get on with their lives, working to the fullest so that they could honor the dead.

I'd only mourned two losses in my lifetime. They were Mother and Ranma. One of them came back to me, I think.

* * * 

I exchanged a glance with Ukyo.

Something was definitely up.

Without another word I ran to Akane's room to find her lying there, her face buried in a pillow.

"Akane! What's wrong?" I approached my fiancee, hoping to comfort her.

"Oh, nothing."

"Don't pull that with me, Akane. What happened?"

Akane sat up on her bed and looked at me.

"I was listening to Ukyo and you joke and...do you remember they day you left?"

"What about it?" This was not a subject I currently wanted to bring up.

"Well...When I saw you over his body, I couldn't help but to...fear you."

"I remember! Get to the point, Akane!" I really did not want to talk about that day.

"But now...it's even worse. You're not the Ranma I knew: You're smarter, happier, and even more tactful. But when I see you now, you're like a little brother or sister. But I still can't shake that memory of you, sitting there, with blood on your hands."

* * *

I had to tell her how I felt about her. I had to tell her how much I loved her.

Voices scream inside me. `You saw the lifeless husk that was in her arms that day. you saw how many bones she had snapped. You new in your heart that Ranma was dead from that moment on.'

Was it too late? No! Never! Our love could endure a thousand years and still be running strong. I loved Ranma from the moment I met her, and I still do to this very day!

`You've never really met Ranma, and besides. Your first kiss was worse than Shampoo's. You hit her with a table for God's sake! You were always such a bitch to her. You don't deserve such a pure soul to call your lifemate.'

Despite the doubts, I had to embrace her, to tell her. I needed Ranma, and she needed me.

`Why would she want a violent sadistic tomboy like you? Need you? You're an idiot, Tendo Akane.'

I wiped away my doubt.

`Ha! You were cruel to her from day one-'

I swallowed my fears. 

`She wants to leave you and you know it. You never even thought of her as male!'

And I gave my heart and my soul up to my love.

* * *

"Oh, Akane..."

Before I could say anything else the youngest Tendo dove for my chest.

"Ukyo helped me. She made me realize that it was still you who I loved..."

"Ukyo...?" I didn't believe it.

"I could hardly believe it myself..."

"I knew that, if I could never have you as a love, which I saw, once I got to know Akane, that I still wanted to be your best friend," Ukyo said quietly from the doorway of the room.

I nodded silently, tears coming to my eyes.

"I love you Ranma. There is no denying it. I spent two years trying to regain my love. Do I have him or her back?"

"I'm yours, Akane. Forever."

Having lost the last of her emotional self-control, Akane gently glomped me as Ukyo winked and closed the door behind her.

I held Akane all night that night, and we slept in a lover's embrace, her fear gone, and my doubts shattered.

* * *

"Look at her," a contralto voice near me piped up.

"With her short hair," a slightly deeper, more sultry voice bubbled.

"Perfect body...she would have to have a perfect body" It was the first voice again.

"She looks like a slut..." This one was a soprano, cruel around the edges.

"Can't you three leave her alone? She looks so sad..." Younger, but kinder.

"That's what you say until she steals your boyfriend, Yuriko...but oh wait...you don't have one, do you?" It was the soprano.

Cruel laughter filled the corner of the Auditorium I sat in, awaiting the start of my term at Furinkan.

As I expected, very soon after a girl with long brown hair came and sat next to me.

"Hi. I'm Yuriko. What's your name?"

I greeted her in standard fashion.

"Saotome Ranko. How do you do?"

"Saotome...I know that name. Are you related to the Ranma saotome who was here a few years ago?"

"In a way, yes."

Confused by my answer, the girl continued on. "Well...they say he just disappeared into thin air a few months before his graduation. I wonder what happened to him..."

"Something tells me he's still around." I said with a knowing smile.

As I said that a teacher walked up to the podium at the front of the auditorium.

"To those of you who are new, and for those of you with short attention spans, I would like to introduce principal Kuno!"

The cheers were deafening. Something must have changed with this guy since I was last at Furinkan.

Then the unthinkable happened.

It wasn't the Hawaiian-clad psycho who stood up to the podium, but Kuno Tatewaki.

"Hello, students, and welcome to what, for most of you, is your second year at Furinkan High School.

There was another soft cheer.

"This year you will have options of taking our Rhythmic Gymnastics, Ice Skating, Cheer leading, Kenpo, and Kendo teams. I myself shall be teaching not only the Kendo team, but also the new Western Poetry course, which you shall be the first class to have the option to partake in."

There was a chorus of 'wow's from the Students.

"For those of you who are planning on taking our course in Abnormal Psychology, be sure to take notes, as my younger sister will be making a visit next Friday," Kuno cracked a slight grin as the students erupted into laughter.

"That being said, I will wish you all a great semester and I hope to see you all doing well. Thank you!"

Kuno exited the stage to a roar of applause.

"Ranko-san. We have to go get our schedules now," Yuriko tugged the sleeve of my Fuku.

We spent the next hour standing in line and chatting idly, as I explained my past, according to the alibi that Yoiko and Ukyo had set up.

"Wow, Ranko! So you must be a very good martial artist..."

I shrugged, not wanting to look overbearing.

"Well hello, Ranko. We've heard so much about you!"

Three girls who I recognized as being the ones who were picking on Yuriko earlier approached us in line.

"Ranko. This is Sayuko, Junior class F, Keiko from Sophomore class C, and my sister, Yuki, from Senior class D."

"Ohayo," I said with a slight glare, not wanting to interact with these girls any more than possible.

"Well, Yuriko. I'll see you at home." Yuki lead the group away from us hastily.

We finally got to the head of the line and found, to my delight, that we were in the same class, and that it was not Sophomore class C.

Just then an announcement buzzed across the school loudspeakers. It was Sasuke. "Attention, students, the school Kenpo team tryouts will be today. Be there!"

"Sasuke is the Kenpo coach?" I asked incredulously.

"Oh no...Sasuke is the principal's assistant. We've had a different Kenpo coach almost every year. But our new coach is supposed to be very good. Not even Principal Kuno has seen her yet, though. Apparently she called him at the last minute and he accepted, having no alternative.

I wondered who it could be.

"Say, Yuriko. Want to go to the kenpo tryouts with me?"

* * *

Two men sit casually next to a pool, staring in, waiting.

One dwarfs the other, a solemn look upon his face. Racked with shame.

What have I done? 

His words do nothing to betray his thoughts.

"How long has it been?"

The look that the other has on betrays nothing as he smokes an old-fashioned corn-cob pipe.

"Twenty minutes"

* * *

As I came to the field where I had held so many battles, I was not surprised to see many boys there, hoping to show what they were made of. When I came to the field Sasuke was there.

"What are you doing here, Master Ranma?"

"Ranma is dead, Sasuke, or haven't you heard?" I said coldly.

The Ninja nodded sympathetically. He looked more or less quizzical in a teacher's polo shirt and slacks, and wore a golf cap to cover his head.

"So. It's Mistress Saotome, then. Is it?"

"We never had any bad blood, Sasuke. I'd rather not have any with you now. Call me Ranko."

Yuriko gave me a perplexed look.

"I thought you were new here, Ranko...What's going on?"

"It's a long story, Yuriko. I'll tell you when you're older."

"Hello, class. Sorry I'm late!"

"Oh no..." Sasuke put his head in his hands. "Pigtailed girl...why did you come back...wait...but I thought that she was...?" Sasuke began looking quickly back and forth between myself and another who was just out of my view.

I turned around to see Yoiko, sporting a thin pigtail.

"Yoichan!" I tackled her to the ground.

"Ranchan! I didn't expect to see you this early!" Yoiko acted as if a surprise had been spoiled. "Well. Here I am. I decided to stay on one side of the law this time. I thought I'd start in good old Nerima."

"Yoiko...this is probably not a place where you should be working...remember how I told you that you looked how I should if I was older?" I attempted to herd Yoiko towards the campus exit.

"Yes...what about it?"

"Well...do you remember the Kendoist that was in love with me?" I kept pushing.

"Vaguely..."

"He's the principal."

Yoiko finally stopped me from pushing her and turned around. "Well...is he cute?"

"Sort of. He has a scar under his eye, and he's tall."

"Well...maybe I should try something new. I've always wondered what a boy would taste like..."

"Pigtailed Girl!"

Before Yoiko could even act she had been glomped by a tearful Kuno.

"Kuno-Sensei. I would like to introduce you to my adopted oneesama, Yoiko."

"Saotome Yoiko..."

"That's Matsui Yoiko," I could tell this was a bad start.

Yoiko pried Kuno off of her and shook his hand.

"Now, if you don't mind. I have a Kenpo team to pick."

Kuno regained his composure and walked off, sporting a grin that wilted a few nearby schoolgirls.

"Is he always that much of a flake, Ranko-chan?"

"Perpetually, Oneesama."

"Well...maybe I should give him a shot. Say...why are you here, anyway? You not only are way too old for this, but you're also a better artist than I am. You'll make me look bad!"

As the tryouts wore on the applicants for the kenpo team wore on. Naturally I was among the few who stayed. As I watched Yuriko I realized that she was holding back on me, she had definitely had some training.

"And now, students, for a demonstration of the true abilities of a martial artist, one of you shall duel me."

I knew Yoiko would do this. 

"Ranko saotome. Please approach the ring we have prepared, and get ready for our rematch"

We both took stances that were familiar, reminiscent of that day...

* * *

From the diary of Saotome Ranma:

As I stood in the rather unique sand-ring, Yoiko took a rather odd stance.

"What's up, Yoiko? Are you going to try to mop the floor with your hands?"

She was gently rubbing the ground in a circular motion.

"Let's go, new girl!"

I hopped out of the way as Yoiko Screamed and punched the ground as hard as she could.

"Houdou-Ken Strike Number 1! Koutsugou na Atemi no Pottohooru!"

The ground below Yoiko seemed to be supremely unaffected. Yoiko didn't seem to be in the least bit vexed by this; in fact, she seemed to be rather satisfied.

I leapt back, just in case.

"Auspicious Strike of the Pothole, Yoiko? What kind of move is that? It doesn't even-"

I was cut off as I landed in a meter-deep pothole that had somehow appeared behind me.

I immediately leapt up and took a defensive stance. For once a semi worthy opponent and, more importantly, something new to learn.

I used the momentum from falling into the hole and spring boarded back at Yoiko, sacrificing strength for speed in a quick few hundred slaps.

Yoiko stood there flabbergasted for a second. 

"H-how do you move so f-fa-"

"It's called training, sister. Welcome to the big leagues."

This seemed to greatly anger Yoiko, as was intended, but I did not expect the amount of battle aura she put out to come out of a girl. She was far stronger than Shampoo, or even Akane. This girl...was good.

"Houdou-Ken Strike 2! KogataJidoushaken!"

I blinked as I dodged her strike and sent her into the ground, making a hole deeper than the one made by her pothole strike.

"You're not bad, Yoiko. You could use some work on naming your attacks, as a Compact-car fist just sounds sorta silly, but you could probably beat Ryouga on a good day. I, on the other hand, am too good for you."

"Screw you! Houdou ken Desperation Strike! Tansoukou no Yubinofushi!"

I quickly leapt over her head and watched as she went fist-first into a rack of barbells, bending the rack and shattering a forty-five kilo weight.

She got up and began to charge me, using multiple variants of each of her moves.

Now this was just pissing me off. This amateur, thinking she could come anywhere matching my skill, trying to fight me, actually thought she had a chance!

Yoiko warded off from her barrage as I began to leak some battle aura. Well...at least the bimbo could see. Maybe she wasn't entirely hopeless. I'd go easy on her this time. I began to ready myself for a quick hundred or so slaps.

"Kachuu Tenchin Amaguriken!"

Yoiko dropped to the ground, covered in small, feminine, handprints. I would never had used this on her before. Was I losing my cool? Was I becoming the monster that the police pegged me as?

Yoiko silently rose to her feet.

"Congratulations, Newbie. You've taken away my claim as the only undefeated Women's prison circuit champ. You have knocked me out of the ring.

"Don't feel bad, Yoiko. You've lasted longer than most. If either of your last two strikes had connected I'd be hurting." I tried to console Yoiko but she shrugged me off.

"But I wouldn't have won. You are my superior in the art, Saotome Ranko, and I would be honored to learn something from you."

I nodded.

"Well...I don't have much else to do," aside from planning my vengeance "So I'll do my best."

I surveyed my new student, per se.

She was sweating head to toe, panting in a way that said she knew exactly how to pant.

"You know....the first thing you need to learn is how to breathe."

"Pardon," Yoiko looked up, eyes exactly like my own, seated with some deep, inner pain.

"You can't sit there bouncing and panting as if you want to get your opponent to instantly attach herself to your leg in an uncouth manner."

She immediately straightened up, blushing.

"Good. Practice that. Today's lesson is over."

* * *

As I bowed to Yoiko, following the fight, I noticed that many of the other students were staring at me.

"You know, Yoi-chan, you've gotten better..."

Yuriko chose that time to speak up.

"Miss Yoiko...that was good, but Ranko-san...you were amazing! How do you move so quickly?"

"I've been practicing the art for twenty years, Yuriko."

"But you're only sixteen, Ranko"

"Er...Sixteen is what I meant. I rounded up." I tried to grin sheepishly.

This seemed to ward off most of the curious students, but Yuriko was looking at me oddly.

"Well...I guess I'll see you tomorrow, Ranko."

With that she ran off, something on her mind by the look of it.

* * *

I couldn't help myself. Something was weird with Ranko. She may have been the best I'd ever encountered at the Ward, but this time she was inhumanly good.

"That was good, Ranko-chan. You've gotten even better than when we first met, did you know that? You're going to start upstaging me!" I tried not to let on that something was wrong, but it was obvious that Ranko was feeling it too.

"I know, Yoiko. A lot of things have been nagging at me, lately."

As the students left, Ranko let her 'kawaii girl' facade drop, and what I saw scared me. This wasn't the Ranko I first met. This was someone...something darker. Ranko was definitely in there, but something was torturing her.

"Have you ever read 'The Count of Monte Cristo,' Yoichan?"

"No, Ranko. Why?"

"It's about this man who gets so bent upon his revenge that it almost consumes him, and in the end, he finally realizes that it's eating him alive and leaves before he can do any more harm."

"Get to the point, Ranko..."

"Do I have to leave too, Yoichan?"

I noticed that, for the second time since I had met her, Ranko was on the verge of tears.

* * *

In the Ward: Month three: Diary of Matsui Yoiko.

Today I came to Respect Ranko more than I possibly ever could have during our constant sparring matches. I found that she was a person worthy of respect, and even praise.

The entire incident started in our 'unadulterated history' class. the teacher was talking about why communist China was ineffective when considering the aspects of freedom. He kept going on about how, since the Chinese were never given the full scope of information, since their input was limited. The teacher stipulated that the lack of mental growth of the Chinese was due to this.

What Ranko said startled everybody, as it was the first time she had willingly talked aloud in this class.

"You're wrong, you know."

The teacher bristled, he was really pissed!

"What do you mean by this, Saotome?"

'Well...first of all, your theorem upon why the Chinese are deprived of knowledge is unfounded, because the Chinese aren't truly deprived; I've been to places where the stores of knowledge go far beyond anything you could put in any of your textbooks. The reason why they still have this knowledge is that the Chinese government, being a Centralized Communism, cannot possibly monitor all activity in China, It's just impossible, especially when there are renegade tribes running all over the place."

"Well, miss Saotome, why doesn't my book speak of these people?"

"Probably because they don't want to be found by an oppressive government, Sensei."

"I'll research this, Sao-"

"Furthermore, the very same treatment you call abhorrent in the Chinese is being practiced by this very ward, so you have no right to criticize them, anyway."

"By this ward? What do you mean by this? Speak up, Saotome."

"Only this, Sensei. You severely limit our input, despite the...wonderful instruction. Your staff has no idea how much torture it is, for at least myself and probably a few others, it is to be surrounded by pink twenty-four hours a day. You guys should realize the torture you put us through with that alone. Furthermore, our wardrobes would be antique if a three-hundred year old Chinese woman was wearing them. They're just plain ridiculous for us. Not every girl in the world wears dresses every day, and bloomers every time she's exercising, you know?"

The teacher was flabbergasted, speechless by Ranko's boldness.

"I'm done with this. I'll see you tomorrow." Ranko stormed out of the room.

We sat in silence for what seemed like hours. I had to speak up.

"You know, she's right."

With that I got up and followed Ranko out, running to catch up with her.

As we continued on I asked where we were going.

"To that idiot director Hans', of course! I'm mad now and this has to stop!"

I kept pace with Ranko, and noticed a guard trying to pick up something on a hand radio, something about a riot with the ward B girls filing out of their classrooms, heading towards Hans's office. That was about when i turned and glanced behind me to notice most of the girls following Ranko and I as quietly as they could.

"We're behind you all the way, Ranko," Sera Arashi called out.

"Yay Ranko! Get us our individuality back!"

We started to go on at a faster pace, some guards even joining in with the cheers as they heard what Ranko was trying to do. 

As we got to Hans's office he was there, a stern look on his face, with two guards on either side of him, all armed.

"What is the meaning of this?" The old man's voice was a far fetch from what he was like at the orientations.

"We've come to protest, Hans! This personality structuring is turning us into nothing but drones! We want our individuality back!"

The old man seemed daunted by something in Ranko, something dangerous. As he looked into her eyes his frown slowly turned into something of a warm, triumphant grin.

"I see, now. So our new Kenpo captain is also a bit of a revolutionary, is she?"

Ranko didn't back down, she seemed to be pulsing with anger, this was only offset by the tears of indignence in her eyes, else nobody in the ward would have doubted that Hans's life would end that day.

Hans began to speak loud enough for the entire mob in the hallway to hear.

"Now hear this! One Ranko Saotome 

has petitioned me with a request that I can't refuse. She has protested the treatment that you are receiving, and I think I have a solution. I propose that you girls form a committee to meet with a committee formed by the teachers and guards that will decide what to do with the wardrobes, modelling of the rooms, and-"

The rest of Hans' speech was drowned out by cheers. Ranko had given us a step up on our freedom.

* * *

It was about time!

Three months. It took three months for the girls to finally get through the first step of their treatment. Maybe this new girl was worth it after all. To think that I had actually considered at the orientation that she was going to be more trouble than she was worth!

This was going to be a good batch, this ward B. I owed much to Miss Saotome Ranko.

* * *

I enfolded Ranko in a hug.

"Can you tell me what's wrong, Ranko?"

"I visited my mother a few days ago."

"You mean..."

"Don't worry, Yoichan. She's still alive, despite her own efforts. She admitted herself to the Ward the next day. I think they may be good for each other."

"Then why bring it up, Ranchan?"

"They were in bed together...it seemed like they were...trying to make up for me, their mistake."

I held Ranko closer.

"They're fools, Ranko. You've told me that yours-"

"That doesn't make them not my parents, Yoichan. It hurt, seeing them like that."

I held her closer.

"There's more, Yoichan. Did you notice that I haven't aged since we met?"

"Yes...but I just thought you were in between growth spurts..."

Ranko shook her head and disengaged herself from me.

"I'm not so lucky. I think it's the Juusenkyo curse interfering with me. My girl form never aged before, and since I'm always her, neither do I."

I nodded empathetically, wishing to all of the gods that I could understand what she was going through.

"But doesn't that make you immortal, Ranko? I mean there's certainly no human alive who can beat you up..."

"That's the problem, Yoiko. I'll never grow up, I'll never get older. I'll always just be Ranko, never myself. I'll have to see you, Akane, and Ukyo die, just like Sera. But I'll always be the Pigtailed girl, the mysterious maiden that everybody either loves or hates. I'll never have an identity."

With that Ranko ran off, and I let her go. She needed time alone. My friend was dying on the inside, and I knew it.

* * *

I sat in front of the short-haired artist with whom I had made a lasting friendship in the last two years. 

"So what will it be, Akane? We should tell her."

Akane was sitting on the other side of my grill, in the position opposite me that she had occupied for so many meetings between us, and the dragon in the past two years.

She gave me a look like I was asking her to slice Ranko's wrists.

"She's not ready, Ukyo. Give it another month or so. It can't hurt. The dragon won't hurt her, I know it. Herb doesn't work that way.

"If you say so, Akane. I still think we should tell Ranko what's going on. When people start lying it always ends in pain."

"I'm not lying, Ukyo. I'm protecting my love."

"You're hiding the truth, Akane, and that will only hurt her."

Akane gave me a fearful look. "You won't tell her, will you, Ukyo?"

I shook my head. "This is your problem, Akane. It's on your head."

I got up from the grill and went outside to brood, leaving Akane to her guilt.

* * *

I walked slowly home from the Kenpo practice. I'd let Yoiko get to close to me, and, damn it, I knew it. Now my curse was going to screw up her life too.

Damn my eyes. Why did I have to let her get so close to me?

I was lost in thought, but not so lost that I didn't notice him following me. I knew who it was, and he was back. He was also in for a surprise.

Luckily for that buffoon, his definition of `following me' somehow translated into walking into a brick wall that was in the opposite direction from him that I was.

Things were about to get interesting.

Disclaimer:

Surprise! I'm not Takahashi Rumiko! (btw: that means I don't own Ranma 1/2 or any of it's characters). Yoiko, Yuriko, Sera, and the bitches are all owned by me. Any comments and criticisms, constructive, preferably, E-mail to Inu_Ranma@yahoo.com

I love writing this fic and have made no profit from it.

Apology: I want to make this fic eventually perfect, so there will be frequent revisions, but I will be doing a new chapter in between each revision until I have finished with the plot of the fic, so don't despair.

Thanx to Kamui.

Special thanx to Figment. 3 in a row and still prereading strong.

Very very very heartfelt special thanx to Riyousha (LOVE!) for prereading, and being there.

Houdou-Ken is amusing."


	4. Memoirs part 4: Memoirs of an Artist (Fi...

Memoirs: Chapter 4. Memoirs of An Artist

I followed closely behind her, as she looked as if she knew where she was going. I'd never seen this girl before, so maybe I was in Hokkaido, or somewhere in Europe. I had no idea, but then again, I never did.

Then it struck me. She had very red hair. I mean...not just a brown red, or an auburn red, but red like a brand new American fire-truck on a sunny day.

This boded closer examination, as I knew very few redheads.

I started to follow closer, trying to get a look at her face, but as I got within about ten yards of her I saw the way she was walking, with that cocky, confident saunter that only HE had, and I realized that it was Ranma.

But she didn't notice me. Surely HE wasn't that oblivious, ever. Surely Ranma would have poked me in the back of the head, by now, or lost me on his tortuous route to....hey...this must have not been Hokkaido.

I began to get excited as I realized that since Ranma was here, that this must have been Nerima. 

I began to run to catch up with Ranma, to give him a beating for leaving Akane for so long. I was sure I was following her closely, but somehow a huge building leaped out in front of me.

* * *

From the Diary of Kuonji Ukyo. Feb 2, 2000.

Dear Diary,

Ranko looked so happy during dinner tonight, something had changed, and it was wonderful. Akane was looking better for it as well. I had to ask. I just had to.

"So...did you two get it on last night?"

Ranko turned a dark shade of pink and Akane kicked her under the table that we were occupying inside of the Ucchan.

"Ucchan! You're not supposed to ask that type of thing!" Ranko gave Akane a nervous look.

"Ranko nearly freaked when she woke up this morning. You should have been there!" Akane was laughing, making me wish I'd seen it. "She's much more fun than P-chan ever was, Ukyo!"

I laughed nervously, knowing that Ranko would probably like to avoid this subject, and already beginning to see signs of stress on her formerly tranquil face.

"Ryoga tried to follow me home today." Ranko, done with her meal, got up and approached the stairs.

Akane, confused, moved to grab Ranko's shoulder as she approached the stairwell, but Ranko...blurred and was on the second step just as Akane reached the bottom of the stairs.

Akane stopped dead. "How did you do that, Ranko?"

Ranko shook her head and went the rest of the way up the stairs.

* * *

How did she do that?

Nobody could be that fast!

I quickly ran the rest of the way up to my room to find Ranko there, staring out the window, wrapped in a blanket.

I quietly walked over and sat next to her.

"You didn't tell us you'd gotten better, Ranko. That's exciting!"

"Spare me, Akane. You want to know what's going on." Ranko gave me a level stare, emotionless.

"Yes..."

"But that wouldn't be fair, would it?"

I was befuddled. Ranko obviously knew something I didn't.

She got up, letting the blanket drop off of her shoulders, still looking out the window and revealed a familiar-looking ornate envelope. "Herb sent me a letter."

I nodded slowly, the realization of my folly dawning on me.

"Why didn't you tell me Herb helped you find me, Akane? He doesn't want revenge. He just wanted to give an apology and spar with me a bit! Did you have to hide the truth from me?" There were tears developing in the corners of Ranko's eyes.

I was speechless. Had I alienated her again?

My friend, my lover looked up at me. "Ryoga will show up at our door in a few minutes. Tell him I will put him in the hospital if he follows me again."

I nodded slightly, and watched as, for the second time, my love left my life.

It didn't occur to me to ask why Ryoga would be showing up here.

* * *

I needed an excuse to leave, and to get to where nobody would be harmed in the ensuing battle, so I used the letter.

That hurt, but I couldn't let her know what I had to do to him.

I was going to have to bend my promise a bit.

Ryoga would not be allowed to toy with Akane any more.

I couldn't let her see what I was about to do, so I hopped up onto the roof, and waited. Sure enough, the lost boy appeared at Ukyo's door, a small electronic device in his hand, and knocked.

When Ukyo opened the door he caught her by the neck and tossed her against the cement wall that lined the other side of the street. I guessed it was time for me to make my appearance.

Things were not going as planned. I was going to regret this and I knew it.

"Where is Saotome, Kuonji? Tell me and you can keep all of your limbs intact. I will see that bastard dead." Ryoga bared his canines at my friend, which was about when I made my first battle-call.

"Houdou-ken Revised, technique number three! Hiryuu no Yubinofushi!" Ryoga looked faintly surprised as he flew through the wall through which he was planning to send Ukyo.

I lifted Ryoga out of the dust that he lay in and placed him back on the street, face down. 

I turned to Ukyo. "Are you okay?"

My friend nodded and gestured at Ryoga, who was getting up.

"Whoever you are, and whatever reason you have for defending Ukyo, you'll pay for that." The lost boy put his hand to the back of his head and noticed the blood that I had drawn there. "Not even Saotome was able to make me bleed."

"Take a closer look, Pig-boy. You may start to show fear." I gave Ryoga my most winning smile. 

Ryoga stared at the ground, building up a Shishi-Hokodan. "I have no reason to fear some weakling girl."

"Look, and you may find that you have a reason now."

I allowed my triumph to show as Ryoga got a good look at my face, and then became enraged. This was going to be fun!

Ryoga gave his battle cry as he charged, finger pointed, at the cement wall behind me. He never was the most graceful of my opponents. Not wanting to deal with pebbles, I caught his finger, twisted, and snapped it.

Ryoga let out a rather loud scream in pain as I caught his wrist.

"Let's try this again, Ryoga-P-chan! Leave now and you will have all of your limbs mostly intact!"

Ryoga punched at me with his free hand. I snapped his wrist, causing him to momentarily drop his guard as I bombarded him with a few hundred kicks.

"You don't learn, do you? I said forfeit!"

The eternal lost boy attempted to punch at me again. I imagine that this was his last conscious thought that day, as that was the point where I decided launched a few kicks at his face.

I told Ukyo to call Dr. Tofu and left for the Nekohanten. Cologne would know what to do about this.

* * *

As I talked on the phone to Dr. Tofu I brooded upon what I had just seen. Ranko was stronger than she had ever been, even stronger than when she had been a he.

I headed upstairs to where I last saw Akane, only to find her sitting on her bed, crying into a blanket.

"She left, Ucchan! She got a letter from Herb, and she left."

"I know, Akane. I just saw her beat the living daylights out of Ryoga, he's unconscious downstairs. Tofu's on the way." I sat down next to Akane.

"Why does Ryoga want to kill Ranma, Ukyo?" I froze up as Akane said this, and I knew she noticed.

I shook my head.

"Damnit! Tell me, Ukyo! I have a right to know!"

I shook my head again and got up.

"That's for Ranma to tell you, Akane. It's between Ryoga, you, and Ranma."

I got up and left Akane to her tears, not knowing what else to do.

* * *

As I opened the front door of the Nekohanten Cologne was there, waiting for me.

"Hello, granddaughter." The mummy pulled a chair over to a table for me.

"I just fought Ryoga." Cologne nodded.

"Did he live?" I winced at the harshness of the Matriarch's question and nodded.

"It was so easy. It was like he was moving in slow motion. Not only that: he was weaker. I snapped his breaking-point finger and his wrist with so much ease. It was as easy as fighting Kuno used to be."

"You're stronger than you ever have been, granddaughter. I can offer you no consolation, except for the fact that I have found you a cure to your aging problem."

I perked up at the good news. "When can I get it, and how?"

"That's the hard part, granddaughter. You must bleed."

"I've bled before, mummy. It's nothing," I said, starting to get annoyed, "it can't be that ba-"

"By bleed I mean that you must lose blood to the point of near-death. The fluid that is tainted with the curse must leave your body, and you must be regenerated, so to speak, with fresh fluid. There are quite a few dangers to this, though."

"Like what? Nothing could be worse than-"

I caught Cologne's cane before she rapped me on the head with it.

"First of all is the obvious danger of death through loss of blood. Second, losing this blood may essentially tell your body that the curse is already gone..."

"Meaning..." I hoped that she didn't mean what I thought she meant.

"Meaning you would be permanently and naturally female." She meant it.

I put my head in my hands. This was too much.

The crone put her hand on my shoulder. "I'm afraid there's more. I have no way of knowing what effect this will have on your curse. In other words, I don't know if the Nannichuan will ever work on you again if we go through with this."

"I need time to think, Obaba-san."

Cologne simply nodded as I made my exit and headed back to Ucchan's.

* * *

I sat near Ryoga in Tofu's clinic, surveying his bruises. How could he hate Ranma so much?

Ryoga stirred, mumbling, and I took his hand.

"Ungh...Akari. I....feel like a ton of bricks hit me...let's go home now..." I realized that he wasn't awake.

"Oh, Ryoga. Why do you hate Ranma so much?"

"He's the reason why I turn into the pig."

* * *

As I got to Ucchan's I noticed a small note on the door.

"Gone to Tofu's to deal with Ryoga. Hopefully see you there. From Ucchan"

Just then I heard a rather large telltale rumble

"Oh, great!" I began to run for the clinic as quickly as I could. As I got there, the second-floor wall was blown out, and Akane was holding Ryoga by the neck over the now-crumbling ledge.

* * *

When I finally came to after my battle with Ranma, I was in an unpleasant position, to say the least. I was dangling by my neck like a ragdoll, two stories up, held in the hand of the lovely Tendo Akane.

"W-why..." was all I could manage before Akane gave my neck a tight squeeze.

"How could you have lied to me, for so long? What possible motive could you have had to pose yourself as that...pig?" Damn. This was not good. 

"Did Ranma tell you? That bas-" Akane slammed me into a wall on the side of the opening she had created in the clinic wall. Pain shot through my shoulder, telling me of its dislocation.

"Don't you dare insult Ranma! He was more of a man than you will ever be. Even as a woman, Ranko is more than you will ever be!"

"Akane!" Ranma was below me. "Don't kill him! Remember what revenge did to me! Don't walk that path! Don't kill! I can't bear to lose you again! Please, Akane-chan. I need you." Ranma dropped to the ground, apparently passing out, and Akane dropped me face-first onto the cement.

Then I knew no more.

* * *

As the rage left my vision, I surveyed my surroundings. Maybe I was in shock, but tearing a hole in the wall and dropping that immoral pig head-first onto the pavement didn't seem like such a bad thing. As a matter of fact, there was only one thing wrong with this picture.

Ranko was unconscious next to Ryoga.

I quickly shot a glance at Tofu, who was sitting in the corner of the room, his arms akimbo, surveying the damage I had just done. Catching my glance, he rushed out to drag Ranko and Ryoga into the clinic.

Within minutes, I was in another room, still dazed, standing next to she who I had come to love, and he who I had come to loathe, while Ukyo gingerly put one hand on my shoulder. Ranko and Ryoga were both still unconscious.

Seeing my worried glances at Ranko, Tofu made haste to check on her, all but ignoring the lost boy for the time being.

"She's just burned out, Akane. Seemed to be using all of her ki simply to keep from fighting, to hold off her emotions."

"She was holding back?" Ukyo exclaimed in surprise, walking forward. "She levelled a concrete wall without trying and beat the living daylights out of Ryoga before he could even blink, and you say she was holding back!?"

Tofu nodded and walked over to Ryoga. "Broken right index finger. Broken right wrist, strained tendon on the left side of his neck, broken nose, and a minor concussion, sustained approximately thirty minutes ago." He shook Ryoga awake and propped him up. As the fool met my eyes he made a vain attempt to twiddle his fingers, which ended up in him yelping in pain. If I wasn't too busy actively loathing him I could have almost laughed.

Ukyo walked forward. "Ryoga, I'd like you to meet Ranko." She gestured to the sleeping form in the bed near Ryoga. "You could say that she's sorta like Ranma's sister, but not quite. She is the cause of most of the damage that you've sustained, and if you ever touch me again, I'll make sure I don't stop her next time."

Ryoga edged up in his seat and took a look at the girl sitting next to him as Tofu bandaged his skull.

"So...this isn't Ranma?" Ryoga looked from Ukyo to myself, questioning the reality of his perceptions.

I went to Ranko's bedside and gave her hand a squeeze. "Ranma died a long time ago, Ryoga." The freak had the dignity to look sheepish, though now I knew exactly what was going through his mind.

"So, Akane, would you like to oomph!" Ryoga shut up as Ukyo planted a fist in his groin.

I paid them no heed, and gently massaged Ranko's hand, hoping that she was okay.

* * *

I awoke with a start, and found myself in a hospital bed, surrounded by Ukyo, Akane, and Tofu.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, Ranko!" Tofu was the first to speak, and it was good to hear cheer in someone's voice, for once.

"How long was I out for?" I looked at the expressions of worry on Ukyo and Akane's faces.

"Just a few hours, Ranko. It's almost 10PM now. It seems that your battle with Ryoga burned you out." Ukyo edged closer to me. "Thank you, Ranko, for saving me."

I simply nodded at her, walked over to Akane, and gave everybody else a meaningful look that said, clearly enough, "We need to be alone."

Ukyo and Tofu exited, dragging Ryoga's gurney along with them.

Akane looked at me with those gentle eyes that I so rarely saw. "What's wrong, Ranko?"

"Cologne may have found a cure for my aging process." Akane looked as if she could jump for joy as I said this, but I kept a firm grip on her hand and held her down. "But there are...risks. The process may or may not give me somewhat of an immunity to the Nannichuan. There's also the chance that it will make me completely female, forever. The lesser of these risks is the fact that there is a decent chance that I will not survive the process."

"The lesser? Ranko, I love you! I don't care whether you're male or female anymore! I don't even care that you didn't tell me about Ryoga, I'd guess that he talked you into that somehow." Akane wrapped her arms around me and began to cry.

I cradled my love in my arms, nuzzling her cheek softly. "I've lived without the possibility of manhood for two years now, Akane-chan. I can live with it for the rest of my life, but not without you. This just scares me because I always had the possibility of eventually regaining that manhood. Losing that chance frightens me, Akane."

Akane nodded and buried her face in my chest.

"I'm going to try this cure, Akane. I have to risk it. You understand?" She nodded silently and tightened her grip on me.

"I want you there, Akane. Will you please come with me?"

Akane nodded again and, after what seemed like hours, began to speak. "I'd follow you anywhere, Ranko. That includes to the gates of Hell, if need be."

* * *

As we approached the Nekohanten, myself for the second time that night, Cologne was waiting out front.

"Welcome, granddaughter, and Tendo Akane. Are you ready for this, Ranko-chan?"

Ranko nodded, fear in her eyes, but doing the best to exude her old confidence.

We followed the old crone into the back room of the Nekohanten, where there was an ornate, reclined bamboo chair with Chinese symbols on it, and odd clamps where the elbows and knees of whoever was sitting in the chair would be. As I investigated the clamps I noticed that they each had about twenty very small needles on the inside, large enough to puncture at the veins, but not large enough to scar.

I gave Ranko a look, and she nodded at me. Somehow this managed to allay my unease at the entire situation.

Cologne led Ranko to the chair as she explained the tenets of the chair's function. "These needles are coated with concentrated water from each of the Jusenkyo springs. As the needles drain your blood, neatly into this basin down here, they will perform a sort of intravenous injection of the water. This is what may give your body an immunity to the springs. Of the documented uses of this cure on Chisuiton victims, half of them have been locked in their cursed forms."

Cologne finished checking the chair and gave Ranma a look. Seeing the young girl nod, the crone pulled on a lever, closing all of the clamps, causing Ranko to wince in pain.

"Just a warning, granddaughter, there will be dreams, and they will not be enjoyable. I wish you luck." With that the crone gingerly pressed a point on Ranko's neck, putting her to sleep.

"You may stay here as our guest, young Tendo. Feel free to pull up a chair and keep an eye on Ranko, for she needs you now, more than ever."

* * *

When I awoke, I had no idea where I was, except that I was tied to a chair, and everything hurt.

I couldn't see. Something was wrong! The old mummy said nothing about blindness!

Slowly, blurry outlines began to form. Three, maybe four, men. No, there were many. Twelve at least. I saw menace in their eyes as my vision got better, but for some reason I could still not see them. Something was wrong. 

Then I realized that it was not menace in their eyes, but lust. I tore at my bonds, tried to fight, but I couldn't move. The men came closer and closer. I couldn't let them do this, I just couldn't.

Suddenly, there was a flash of black as another man, taller, gentler, came in between the dark figures and I. I recognized this one, but the light that emanated from him was so bright that I couldn't make out his features.

The light figure cut my bonds, then left, even as the dark ones approached me again.

"You think you can escape that easily," one of them said in a voice familiar but distant. "You're just one little bitch. How could you possibly take on all of us? You can't even keep your ki in balance."

The speaker moved before I could even blink, grabbed me by my left leg, and flung me against the wall. Something broke and I realized that I no longer had use of that leg.

The first speaker finally came into the light. It was some perversion of nature, half man and half swine. He wore only a bandana while his thick fur hid the rest of his skin.

That bandana....

This was Ryoga.

I got up, and propped against my good leg as I surveyed my opponent.

"So, bitch...are you ready to tango?" He moved and pinned me against the wall, upside down, by my broken leg. I tried to scream again, but no sound could penetrate my vocal cords.

The pig man gingerly peeled the skirt off of my sweating legs and began to perversely massage my thigh with his deformed snout. "Did I ever tell you how attracted I've always been to you, Ranma? You've got such a hot little bod. You're always gonna be this little pint-sized package, nice n' easy to pick up."

I tried to say that I wasn't Ranma any more, and this only resulted in the pig swiping me across the face, leaving three deep, stinging cuts.

"You can't lie to me, you little bitch! I know Ranko is just a facade, because though you're more feminine now than you can admit, your core hasn't changed. You're still the same cross dressing bastard I've always known." The pig began to roughly lick upwards along my leg.

"Y-you're crazy, Ryoga! Everybody changes! Of course I'm different! I've been surrounded in femininity for almost two years! Things change. People lose their loves, people gain new loves, that's life!"

The pig man stopped on his twisted route just as he reached my upper-thigh and backed off. He slowly disappeared into the woodwork, and I knew oblivion once more.

* * *

Ranko tossed and turned in her sleep. Gods, what I would give to see what she was seeing, what I'd trade for a chance to walk alongside her, not behind her, for once.

I heard footsteps and looked up to see Shampoo entering.

"Is she going to make it, Akane?" The worry in the Amazon's voice surprised me.

"I-I don't know, Shampoo." I clung to one of Ranko's hands, bloody but soft in it's femininity.

"Akane, it's been hours. Please dine with me?" I shook my head at Shampoo's proposition.

"I stay with Ranko." I made sure I sounded more resolute than my mood dictated.

"Fine. Then I bring food to you." Shampoo turned and left the room, to return with a piping hot bowl of ramen only moments later.

I nodded my thanks to Shampoo and polished off the bowl of ramen rather quickly.

As I looked up from my bowl, Shampoo had a haunted look on her eyes.

Ranko had started tossing and turning again

* * *

I awoke to find myself in the chair once again, but at least I was no longer tied down. My arm seemed to have been tended to, and fully healed. It must have been some medicine of the Mummy's.

I looked around and realized, to my chagrin, that most of the dark figures were still there.

The largest of them walked forward and caught me by the neck, lifting me out of the chair.

It was some sort of bear-creature.

Pop.

"Oh the horror! My Son has brought my family such dishonor!"

Genma-panda smashed me against a wall and began tugging at the dress I wore.

"You have to repent for your dishonor, Ranko-chan." Seeing that his paws failed to unbutton the dress, Genma resorted to ripping it to shreds.

The creature harshly pressed himself up against me and started nuzzling my neck. 

"You were always so much better as a girl, Ranko-chan," I couldn't help but gasp as the beast thrust himself upon me, punctuating the feminine honorific he had attached onto my name. What sort of hell was I in?

I managed, after what seemed like days of this sick game, to gain enough command of my body to speak.

"I never brought the dishonor upon our family. It was always you with your thievery and your ridiculous engagements. Did you ever think that maybe there are more important things in life than a halfway-decent meal?!"

The panda halted as if someone had just turned him off. He silently dropped me on the floor and withdrew.

I wasn't prepared for the next voice I heard.

"What about my honor, my son? You made it so I could never show my face in Kyoto again!"

My mother walked towards me, looking somehow unnatural.

"How could you dare kill in the presence of the matriarch of the clan Saotome?"

A trickle of dark, potent red began to appear on my mother's snow-white obi sash.

"How could you beat a helpless old man into submission when our family's honor was at stake?"

The red deepened, dripping down Nodoka's sash and kimono, dying them a sickly brown-red, and finally reaching the floor, where it began to pool and curdle.

"How could you become a girl when you swore that you would be a man amongst men?"

She put her hand to her midsection, and flung her kimono open, for me to see the cut that lay across her belly.

"You killed me, my son. You sent me to hell. Maybe I should take you back there with me! Would you like that, Mother and Daughter in our own little section of torment together?"

Nodoka edged closer to me, adopting the stereotypical shuffle of a zombie.

As she came closer, I saw that a red stripe was appearing on her neck. I shut my eyes and hoped with all of my might that this was a dream.

I heard a sickening thump on the ground, and I knew that the ghast was dead.

I curled up into a small ball and waited for the world to end, and finally the oblivion I wished for came.

* * *

I awoke to find that my hands were getting drenched in Ranko's blood.

This scared me a bit, to say the least. I got up and looked around the cafe to find Cologne.

"Is she done yet, Cologne? I'm worried about her."

The crone came with me back into the room where Ranko was sitting and took a look.

"Not quite, Tendo Akane."

"But she looks so pale..."

Cologne gave me a reassuring glance. "Ranko hasn't lot as much blood as it looks like. The needles just make it seem that way because they spread the flow of blood around. In about another hour Ranko will awaken. She will awaken, that is, if she survives. This promises to be one of the hardest hours of her lifetime."

The Crone, having nothing else to say, left.

I returned to my post and held Ranko's hand, praying to all of the gods that she would survive.

* * *

I awoke again, still only in my underclothing, to find myself surrounded by the remaining dark figures. This time I could recognize them. Pansuto, Mousse, Kuno, Herb, Hiroshi, Daisuke and Gosunkugi approached me with the now all-too-familiar menace in their eyes.

Pansuto, looking barely human, lifted me off the ground and wrapped his arms around me.

"Who's on top now, eh? Trans-gender bitch!" I tried desperately to move, but found myself weakened and helpless against his onslaught. Pansuto had his way, giving thrusts with his half-demonic body, and then handed me off to the Furinkan boys, who took their turns. I needed help. I needed someone badly.

Suddenly, an ethereal glow came from somewhere I could not see. The light caused the shadowy figures to shy away, and then help arrived. It was Akane.

I tried to run to her, and found myself too weak. My love came to me and lifted my prostrate form from the cold, wet ground.

"Come back to me, Ranko. I need you. I want you to be mine, forever. I don't care what you are so long as who you are doesn't change."

I drifted off into another form of oblivion, but this one was soft, caressing my mind, promising of the fulfillment of dreams to come.

* * *

On the morning of February 3, 2000, Saotome Ranko awoke into new awareness. I was just lucky to have accompanied her on the way, and fortunate to have been her love.

I had slept uneasily the night before, watching and feeling Ranma suffer, feeling her blood, slick in my hands. When she awoke I quickly bandaged her wounds and took her home. Cologne said that she would know what the results of the ritual were within a month.

Strangely enough, after the needles were withdrawn from Ranko's arms and legs, they left no mark. I was happy, but a bit confused at this.

I couldn't dwell on that night for long, though, as there was much else that I had to deal with.

Herb arrived the next day, and gave us some startling news.

The Kaisui-Fu had not been destroyed.

*******

Disclaimer: All characters from Ranma 1/2 are the property of Takahashi Rumiko. All other characters in this work are mine, and mine alone, mwa ha ha ha!!

for C&C Mail Inu_Ranma@yahoo.com, that is all. 

Chapter 5 should be revised, and possibly chapter 6 (the final chapter) out before next sunday, May 26th.

Special thanx again to Figment, Fall, and Reddjango

Still very special thanx to Riyousha


	5. Memoirs part 5: Silence of Mother and Ch...

Memoirs, Chapter 5: The silence of Mother and Child  
  
  
A harsh rap on a door awoke me. I kept my eyes shut, in fear of what I might see. I was afraid that my tormentors were still there, and that they would want more of my soul than they had already taken.  
  
"Is she okay?" A voice queried to the silent room. The voice was soft, but at the same time weathered. It was as if the speaker had been through years of pain, and was still hiding that pain - but there was also love in the voice, and hope.  
  
"I don't know, Ukyo. Cologne said it could be a while before we know. I'm scared." From this voice I felt the same love, the same hope, and in almost the same measure. It was a voice that, though it only exuded love at this point, could harbor anger. It was so much less stable than the other, but at the same time it was so much more to me.  
  
"I'm scared too, Akane. I want Ranchan to be okay, and though it's obvious her body survived the treatment, I'm more worried about her soul."  
  
A soft hand took mine.  
  
I chose this time to open my eyes, and found that I was in the bed that Akane and I shared.  
  
"Did you miss me?" I was surprised at the voice that came out. It was so weak. Was this really me?  
  
Akane hugged me tightly, no longer satisfied with my hand.  
  
"What's the big deal, Akane? I'm fine! I may even start to grow up, if I'm lucky." I offered my best smile to the girls, hoping to cheer them up.  
  
"Herb stopped by yesterday, Ranma." I noticed that Akane had switched back to my former name, but I let it be, not knowing what she was leading up to.  
  
"He left this for you." Ukyo handed me an ornate letter, not unlike the first two I had received.  
  
"To the honorable Saotome,  
  
I am honored to be the first to tell you that I have retrieved the Chisuiton, and that, oddly enough, it is still pulling. This only draws me to one conclusion, and that is that the Kaisui-Fuu must still be intact. As you are currently unable to leave Japan, and I still consider my life-debt unfulfilled, I shall journey to find the Kaisui-Fu. I would be honored to call you my friend when this is over, Saotome, for, having survived this ordeal thus far, you are surely a man among men.  
  
-Herb."  
  
I dropped the letter to the floor in surprise. Akane and Ukyo looked worried until they saw my elation.  
  
"Have you read this? This is great news! I may be able to turn back!"  
  
As smiles dawned on Ukyo and Akane's faces I got up and began to get dressed.  
  
Ukyo suddenly stopped. "But, Ranchan..."  
  
I gave her a look and noticed the worry on her face.  
  
"If you can go back...would you want to? I mean of course you'd want to, but what if you can't?"  
  
I stopped dead. "I have to take the chance, Ucchan. If I can gain my identity back this will all be like a bad dream. I can regain all I lost in a matter of days."  
  
"But what about all you've gained, Ranchan?"  
  
"Gained?"  
  
Ukyo gently put her hands around my shoulders.  
  
"You've learned so much! In the last month alone you've been able to admit that you love Akane, you've gotten to the point where you don't say something stupid every time you open your mouth, and you've improved as an artist as well. Would you really want to go back to being your old self?"  
  
I shrugged out of my best friend's grip. "I have to be me, Ukyo. I'm not female, no matter how many years you stick me in this body for. My real body is still aging, and I want it back. Think how your life would be if you were given a male body for half the time at age sixteen, and then been banished permanently to that body at age eighteen, could you imagine the agony?"  
  
Ukyo remained silent and shook her head, causing her long, brown hair to flow over her shoulders.  
  
"Do whatever you want, Ranchan. I'm behind you the entire way, but please think about Akane during this. The reason we can't understand what you've been through is that you've never told us, and we're afraid to ask."  
  
"You should be, Ukyo. You should be."  
  
* * *  
  
Not knowing how to react to the information that Herb had supplied me with, I went to school the next day as normal. Apparently normalcy was not fated, as Yoiko and Yuriko knew something was up.  
  
As I approached the Furinkan building I received a tap on my shoulder, which nearly scared me out of my wits.  
  
"What's up, Ranko? I've been following you for about six blocks! Did you stay up too late or something?" Yuriko hopped in front of me and began to walk backwards.  
  
I shook my head. "A lot happened last night. I'm just brooding."  
  
"Well you'd better hurry. Two more minutes and we'll be late for Western Poetry."  
  
I nodded and began to sprint towards my classroom.  
  
Yuriko began to run as well, and neither of us noticed the pack of boys that were lined up to date us, luckily for them.  
  
We arrived in the second-story classroom but a moment before the bell rang.  
  
"Welcome, Saotome Ranko, to Western Poetry. You seem to have the same tendency as your brother to be late, but I warn you now that I shall not tolerate such tardiness in my class."  
  
"My brother? I mean...gomen ne, Sensei." I bowed to Kuno and took my seat.  
  
"Okay. Welcome to Western Poetry. I shall first read an excerpt from a poem by one William Shakespeare, a renowned Western Playwright and poet."  
  
"Hearts remote and yet not asunder  
Distance and no space was seen  
'Twixt the turtle and his queen  
But in them it were a wonder"  
  
"Is there a problem, miss Saotome?"  
  
I didn't know why, but some reason tears were in my eyes. Maybe it was the sheer beauty of the poem that Kuno recited, but maybe it was something else. Sure enough, before I knew it my face was in my hands and I was crying uncontrollably as the other girls snickered, Yuriko looked confused, and Kuno looked helpless.  
  
"Yuriko, if you would please, could you please escort Miss Saotome to the Infirmary?"  
  
As Yuriko gently tugged my by the elbow I got to thinking. Was I the Turtle? I knew I loved Akane, but was it true that I was hiding even still? I knew I was. I had receded the minute I left the ward. I was afraid of my love. How could I face her as a woman? Even after we'd had that wonderful night together, I still had my doubts.  
  
"Are you okay, Ranko?" I looked up to see Yoiko.  
  
"Fine, Yoichan." I must have not been disguising my voice very well, because Yoiko immediately sat down next to me, on the nurse's office bed that Yuriko had led me to.  
  
"You can tell me what's wrong, ne?"  
  
I bit my lip. "Remember when I tried to explain my life to you, Yoiko?"  
  
Yoiko nodded, looking as if she was trying to remember way back then.  
  
"Well...remember when I told you I was really a boy?" Another nod came. "I found a way to regain my manhood."  
  
Yoiko blanched, as I expected her to.  
  
"I know it's hard to believe, Yoiko. I want you there with me when I turn back. You need to see who I am."  
  
Yoiko answered with a nod and took my shoulder in her arm.  
  
After a few minutes of me comfortably resting in my friend's arm, she got up.  
  
"How long has it been since you went into that chair, Ranko?"  
  
"Fifteen days, why?"  
  
Yoiko only winked. "I'll tell you in a couple of weeks, maybe sooner."  
  
Yoiko then opened the door, said something to the nurse, and left.  
  
* * *  
  
That night, as I lay in Akane's arms, I gently tightened my wrap around her.  
  
"Akane...are you awake?"  
  
Akane shifted to get in a full view of me and smiled, which caused me to involuntarily blush. "Yes, Ranko...Ranma. I'm here."  
  
"Do you want to know what I went through?"  
  
Akane shifted again and pulled me closer. "If you want to tell me, Ran...chan." She suppressed a giggle.  
  
I nodded and began my tale.  
  
* * *  
  
When I finished, Akane was livid.  
  
"I can see why you did what you did, Ranma. Perhaps not with Happy, but in the Ward. You had to become who you are, or you would have had to spend essentially the rest of your life in there. I'm just relieved that the one I have come to love is still in there, and I have even come to love some of the "new you" as well"  
  
I nodded slowly. "Just remember, Akane, that no matter how many dresses I've worn, no matter how many hairstyles I've been through, no matter what my body looks like, I'll always be the man who loves you."  
  
We then tightened our embrace, two lovers enfolded in one-another, and slept.  
  
* * *  
  
I watched as Ranma embraced Akane. What had he done to her? How had he made her love him? Truly, it must have been through some subversion. He must have threatened her father, or blackmailed her. How could this foul cross-dresser have enticed Akane into showing such love for him?  
  
He had sacrificed his honor. He had compromised her integrity. He had shown me hell through the pig, flaunting the body that he inherited. When I found my cure, he forced his guilt upon me by making his into a permanent situation. Ranma Saotome would die, and he would die by my hand!  
  
But how to do it...  
  
I needed to set him up. The last thing that bastard would see would be my grinning face, triumphant in the annihilation of his evil. Then Akane would love me. Then Akane would realize the spell that had been put on her and rejoice. Then I would finally have the woman I deserve, while Ranma Saotome would get the fate he deserves.  
  
I, Hibiki Ryoga, will come out on top!  
  
* * *  
  
Ranko was sneezing uncontrollably as we ate dinner, so I gently handed her a handkerchief.  
  
She thanked me and went back to eating, silence invading the room once again.  
  
Ranko finally finished her stack of okonomiyaki and sat up.  
  
"So, Akane. Have you talked to your sisters lately." Startled at the seemingly random line of questioning, I nearly dropped my okonomiyaki. Ukyo looked relieved when I saved the large pancake/pizza from falling on our table.  
  
I gave Ranko a level stare. "I haven't talked to them since we left home. I assume that Kasumi's doing well with Tofu, and Nabiki got a scholarship to some prestigious business school in Central Tokyo."  
  
"Okay. So have you considered talking to your father?" I avoided Ranko's gaze and concentrated on my Okonomiyaki for a little while.  
  
"I'm not ready to talk to him yet. I still can't forgive him just letting you go, back then."  
  
Ranko got up and started cleaning her placemat off. "Well...you might consider trying to talk to him. I'm worried about him, and I don't want to have a boss who's crying for most of the day while I'm trying to work."  
  
I didn't believe my ears. "A boss? Are you telling me you went to work for my father?"  
  
Ranko simply nodded. "I need to solidify my identity again, and one good way to do that is by having income, so I'm going to be teaching at Tendo Dojo on weekends." I was beginning to fume, and it was obvious that Ranko noticed this. "Don't worry, Akane. I won't try to push you two together beyond this, but it does pain me to see a family like yours split up. You four used to be so close, now it must have been over a year since you've talked to your sisters, and longer since you've talked to your father."  
  
At first I was furious at the effrontery of Ranko's interference into my family's business, then I was touched by the fact that she was showing that she really cared. Through this maelstrom of emotion, I somehow managed to nod.  
  
Ranko stood up and placed her hands on the table. "Good! You, your father, and Kasumi have a lunch date here, tomorrow at half past noon. Don't be late. I'm working on contacting Nabiki, and I think I may have a lead as to where she went, but don't expect any miracles."  
  
Ranko left, leaving Ukyo and I dazed.  
  
I gave the chef, who was behind the counter fixing herself another okonomiyaki, a look. "Did you know she was going to pull this, Ukyo?"  
  
Ukyo shook her head. "I had no idea. I wonder how long she's been planning this for."  
  
I gave Ukyo a nod and went upstairs to plan a long-overdue reunion with my father and my sisters.  
  
* * *  
  
From the dairy of Saotome Ranma: February 19th, 2000.  
  
If I could have picked a day where I would be in my own personal Hell rather than be anywhere with anybody except for Akane, it would have been today.  
  
I woke up, and I was bleeding. bleeding!  
  
I looked around my room, and there were no attackers, no Mousse or Ryoga pestering me. I had no wound, and yet there was a spot of blood on my bed the size of a Five-Yen piece!  
  
If that wasn't bad enough, I felt like somebody had pumped me full of Helium.  
  
I labored to get out of bed to come face-to-face with Akane, who took one look at me, ran out of the room, and returned with a small, nondescript box and a huge smile on her face.  
  
For some reason I was more irritable than usual that day, so I shut the door in her face and went back to bed.  
  
* * *  
  
Ouch...  
  
Even though I knew what was going on, that still really hurt. Then again, having a door slammed in your face is having a door slammed in your face, whether it's done by your loved one or not.  
  
I figured out what had happened to Ranko the moment I came up to announce breakfast and saw our Bedmat and her face. It could only have been one thing. In hindsight, perhaps my elation got the better of me.  
  
I tried entering our room again, this time with a plate full of eggs instead of the box of pads.  
  
"Ranma-Honey, come and have breakfast," I had started using Ukyo's old pet name for Ranma in hopes of comforting her. "I have some good news for you."  
  
"Can't it wait `til tomorrow, Akane-chan?" Ranma's muffled voice from the pillow seemed to be tired and frustrated. "I feel like I'm about to explode."  
  
"That has to do with the good news, Ran-chan."  
  
Ranma unburied herself. "Huh?"  
  
"You're aging!"  
  
* * *  
  
I sprang awake with Akane's news.  
  
"You mean...?"  
  
"That's right, Ranma! You're having your first period!" Akane was so excited that she was almost yelling.  
  
"Care to keep it down, Akane? I have morning customers down there, you know?" Ukyo, looking a little miffed but smiling nonetheless, walked into the room with the same box that Akane had been carrying before. "Here, Ranchan. You'll need these." She tossed me the box, which turned out to say `Maxi Pads' on the side, and rushed back downstairs.  
  
"Um...Akane?" I didn't know how to phrase this gently, so I just asked. "What are these for?"  
  
Akane blushed a deep red and grabbed the box, opening it.  
  
As she took the thick, odd-looking pad out it was my turn to blush. "What are you thinking, Akane? I'm not Three years old! I know how to use the bathroom!"  
  
I heard chuckles from downstairs and immediately ran to shut the door. Perhaps I was yelling a bit too loud.  
  
Akane was near hysterics as she grabbed my shoulder and directed my view to the blood on my bedmat. My blush deepened.  
  
"They're for that, Ranchan!" Akane's voice was a high-pitched squeak as she did her best not to burst out laughing.  
  
As the realization dawned on me, the look on my face must have been too much, because Akane finally burst into a full, hearty laugh.  
  
* * *  
  
As I got to school, silly-looking pad in place, and blush resided to a dull pink, things started going downhill again.  
  
When I arrived, there was a solid wall of slavering boys and angry girls standing there. The boys seemed to be leering at something, and whatever it was, the girls were glaring icily at the same thing.  
  
Realizing something was up, I halted and took stock of the situation, peering behind me to see who they were staring at.  
  
There was nobody behind me.  
  
They were staring at me.  
  
As if I didn't have enough problems...  
  
"Ranko-chan! Go out with me!"  
  
One of the boys from the Sumo Club started charging towards me.  
  
"Oh no..." I finally realized what was going on. "Is this what Akane went through every day?"  
  
I quickly took stock of my opponents and began to plow through the hapless twits that were attacking me.  
  
Three minutes later, two-hundred and fifty bruised, but mostly unharmed boys were lying on Furinkan's front lawn, and I was walking in the front door with Yuriko.  
  
As we walked in the large double-doors I stopped and turned around.  
  
"Just so you know boys! You're not my type! Stay with your girlfriends. They deserve you!" I gave a pointed look at Yuriko's sister and her friends before running the rest of the way to my classroom.  
  
Unfortunately, the day was only going to go downhill from there.  
  
* * *  
  
I kept an eye on Saotome. She was doing quite well, but she was unhappy. I had to give her life a chance to repair. This was my fault.  
  
I took flight from the residence of the Kuonji girl and searched for my next destination. I nearly roared in triumph as the pull from the Chisuiton got stronger, and I finally saw my destination.  
  
The old man was truly merciless. I recognized the name on the house I approached. This would truly be taxing, but it would also give me the chance I needed to help repair the life of Saotome, and to repay my debt.  
  
I would not tell Saotome yet. She would want a few more days to sort out her affairs. She would need some time so she went through this ordeal with prudence. She would need a few more days before she was to go home.  
  
* * *  
  
As I sat in my room staring at the pink ceiling, feeling the silk of the pink bedsheets, and wondering why the Ward bothered supplying pink undergarments, there came a knock on my undeniably pink wooden door.  
  
"Saotome-san. There is a...a visitor for you" The gruff voice of the guard seemed to have a tinge of nervousness on it's edge, so, bored out of my mind at the endless tedium of the Ward, I rose to my feet, opened the door, and followed my would-be babysitter to the visitor's room.  
  
As I sunk down into the deep armchair that was supplied for the patient's end of the room, I took notice of a dark silhouette in a corner where there should have been no shadow.  
  
"Do you want to redeem yourself in the eyes of your son, Saotome-san?" The voice was deep, familiar, and undeniably Deadly.  
  
I somehow managed to keep my composure.  
  
"And to whom am I speaking?"  
  
The figure stepped out of shadows to reveal himself as a powerful-looking man, as my son had been.  
  
"Do you want your son to regain his manhood?" I could scarcely believe what I was hearing. This man knew a cure?  
  
The man walked forward and placed a key in my hand. It was the key to my home, the place I left in order to regain my lost honor, my lost hope. Could I return yet?  
  
The dark man gave a curt nod to the orderly who stood behind me and I was given a white ceremonial Kimono.  
  
"It's time to go home, Saotome Nodoka, and to give your son life for the second time."  
  
* * *  
  
When I got home, Ukyo was there at the door, waiting for me.  
  
"Hurry, Ranchan. Something important's come up."  
  
"Ucchan...I've had a very long day. Whatever it is it can wa-"  
  
Ukyo interrupted me, and I looked into her eyes to see that they were slightly bloodshot.  
  
"No, Ranchan. You need to hear this now."  
  
"Have you been crying, Ucchan?"  
  
"There's no time for that." Ukyo quickly looked away and got behind her grill. "Akane's going to be back here with your mother any minute. Go upstairs and get-"  
  
"My mother? What's going on?" I really hated being in the dark like this. "Spit it out, Ucchan!"  
  
"Herb called, saying that Akane was to come pick your mother up from the Kyoto Ward this morning. They're due back in about an hour. He says that your mother knows where your cure is, and that he considers his lifedebt paid."  
  
* * *  
  
I sat across the table from Saotome Nodoka, awaiting her explanation. Why had she returned now of all times?  
  
"Hello, Son."  
  
I bowed my head and mumbled a barely-coherent response, not ready to have this situation thrust upon me.  
  
My mother stood, sighed briefly, and dropped something metallic on the table.  
  
"Six, one, Ninety-nine. That should be the combination of the safe. According to the Dragon, your cure is there. I hope this has redeemed you in my eye, son, for I can do no more."  
  
Nodoka began to walk out, but I stopped her before I knew what I was doing, and embraced my mother with all of my might.  
  
"I can try and forgive you, Mother, and I shall, provided you accompany me, and try and see who I am without hindrance of superficial 'honor.'" She winced at my harshly chosen words, but nodded at their implication.  
  
I gave a glance to Akane and Ukyo, who were sitting at the bar with Ryoga, and we arose as one, ready to face my destiny.  
  
I did a double take.  
  
"Wait a damn minute! What the hell is he doing here!?" I was yelling at the top of my lungs and I didn't care. Ryoga had no business with us, anymore.  
  
As my hands clutched his shirt in preparation for tossing him out the window Ryoga protests weakly, then a hand came onto my shoulder.  
  
"He's offered to help us, in case anything goes wrong, Ranma." Akane's soothing voice drew me out of my anger and I dropped Ryoga on the ground with all of the dignity that he deserved. None.  
  
"Fine, but it won't be ony my head." I got up and headed out of the door, prompting all of my friends, and one who was my enemy, to follow.  
  
* * *  
  
Oh, but it will be on your head.  
  
* * *  
  
After stopping to pick Yoiko up from her apartment, we headed straight to Saotome-ke.  
  
As we entered the dark house, my mother shuddered and I gave her a sidelong glance.  
  
"Something's missing, Ranma. I don't know what, but something's wrong."  
  
Ryoga looked out the front door and glanced into the hallway ahead of us. "It's clear, Ranma. Let's get this over with."  
  
Mother was right, though. Something was seriously wrong.  
  
Not wanting to cause any more nervousness, I ran to catch up with my mother, and stopped cold as I saw her removing that fateful object, an ornately-carved kettle, harboring more power than anything I knew. It was the Kaisui-Fuu: My cure.  
  
Nodoka Saotome, my mother, quietly, ceremoniously walked to a faucet and filled the kettle with hot water as Akane, Yoiko, and Ukyo entered the room behind me and backed against a wall.  
  
I imagined the joy and elation of my male body as the hot water poured over me.  
  
I never imagined the wrenching feeling, or the pain.  
  
This wasn't right.  
  
I looked down to feel something wet and sticky. As I felt my belly, where it hurt, my hand came away red.  
  
This was about when I noticed the look Akane had on her face. It was a look of horror, and it was directed at whatever was right behind me.  
  
Something was horribly wrong.  
  
I turned around to see Hibiki Ryoga, holding the remainder of my family's blade, and had just enough time to dodge so it went into my lung, not my heart. It didn't matter.  
  
I found myself unable to concentrate as I got ready to defend myself and attempted to focus on the elated grin that Hibiki Ryoga sported. The bastard had been planning this all along.  
  
I was dead anyway, so I decided to do what I knew how to do: fight.  
  
In my desperation, in hindsight, I may have overdone it a bit, but it really didn't matter. it was over, and even as I began to systematically break each of my assailant and murderer's bones, one by one, I knew that this was the end.  
  
* * *  
  
My dream had just become a nightmare.  
  
Here was the man...the woman I loved, glowing like some odd star, every muscle writhing in some twisted parody of the neko-ken, two blades sticking out of her like some sort of cannibalistic shish-kabob, and snapping Ryoga's bones, one by one, while keeping him cruelly alive.  
  
Somehow, this isn't what startled me.  
  
Ranma was aging.  
  
I was surprised, because she developed so quickly, outgrowing her seifuku to the end that she bordered on kinky and had gone far beyond vuluptuous.  
  
Her hair grew too, and before I knew it backlash for four years of non-aging had caused Ranma's beautiful red locks to hit the floor, and yet she still fought, and she still extended her cruelty.  
  
The glow finally intensified as the Kaisui-Fuu completed it's work, turning the bloodied, gorgeous twenty-year old woman into a handsome, nearly dead twenty-year old man.  
  
Ranma finally stopped attacking Ryoga and promptly collapsed. His mother hurried to find something to cover his inert body with, but the look in his eyes told that it would be little more than futile.  
  
My love was dying.  
  
"Akane." His voice was a whisper.  
  
I found that I had been crying, and backed away from the man I loved. Before I made that mistake for the second time, though, two hands caught my shoulders.  
  
A Quiet, tearful voice gently admonished me. "He loves you, Hun. He needs you now most of all."  
  
I glanced behind me to see Yoiko nodding as well, agreeing with Ukyo's statement, and found that I needed no more encouragement. I ran to my love, bloodied and broken on the hard, unforgiving floor near the man who had brought about his death, and embraced him as he died, taking my heart with him and speaking one final, emphatic word.  
  
"Live!"  
  
And with that Saotome Ranma left my life for the second time.  
  
* * *  
  
Brightness.  
Heaven?  
Death?  
Peace?  
Where am I?  
Underwater?  
Voices.  
Where are they coming from?  
So familiar...  
  
"Qipannichuan."  
  
***  
  
Disclaimer:  
  
Rumiko Takahiashi owns everything from Ranma 1/2. Everything else in here is mine.  
  
Special thanx to Breisleach, Figment, Figment, Figment, Tannim, Mai and Rakhal.  
  
Very special thanx to Riyousha.  
  
-Inu (Inu_Ranma@yahoo.com) 


	6. Memoirs part 6: The Bitterness of Going ...

Memoirs: Chapter 6. The Bitterness of going on. (Epilogue)  
  
  
  
I awoke with a start and immediately felt along my body to find everything normal. Everything   
was in place, no bones were broken, and I wasn't bound.   
  
So what the hell had caused that dream? I mean...seriously! Since when was I equipped to love   
somebody like Ranma??  
  
I quickly arose and tore open the flap to my father's side of our tent.  
  
"What the hell are you thinking, old man? Did you slip your secret sauce into my dinner again?"  
  
My father roused awake like a bear from hibernation, which really wasn't far from the truth.  
  
"Go black to sleep, Ukyo." The snores began again.  
  
I hefted my battle spatula and punted the old man out into the open.  
  
"Like hell!" I began to attack as soon as he hit the ground.  
  
The old man finally woke up. "You're on, Boy!"  
  
  
  
* * *  
  
  
  
I woke from the dream with a shriek, only to have Nabiki shyly peek in on me.  
  
"So you had it too..." Her voice was soft, nothing like it was in that memory...that dream.  
  
I nodded and hugged my sister tightly. "What happened, Nabiki-chan? Who were those people?"  
  
My older sister shook her head. "I have no idea, Akane." I saw the tears in her eyes as she turned   
her face directly towards mine, at last. "Maybe we should call Kasumi at Tofu's. She'd know what   
to do."  
  
I nodded at my sister, deriving some comfort from the fact that she was here with me. "We'll call   
in the morning,"  
  
  
  
* * *  
  
  
  
When I came to I was in a bed, and I was male.   
  
I was two-for-two.  
  
I sat up, and nothing hurt: I wasn't having a period, there was no gash that revealed my guts, I   
wasn't scarred from a final battle, and I was male!  
  
I stood up in the small cabin, revelling in my male body, to find that I was sixteen years old again.  
  
"Odd. I could've sworn..." I spoke aloud to myself, assuming solitude.  
  
"I thought I'd lost you there, boy." Pop's grim voice penetrated the silent air of the small cabin   
and proceeded to scare the daylights out of me as he came in from the beautiful spring day that   
tantalized me through the makeshift doorway.  
  
"Where am I?"  
  
"You don't remember?" The old man looked disappointed, so I began to recall the last few days   
out loud.  
  
"I remember coming home, finding the Kaisui-Fuu, and getting stabbed in the back by Ry-"  
  
The old man was giving me an odd stare, so I decided to appease him. "What's wrong, pop? Spit   
it out."  
  
"We're in the Cursed Training grounds of Juusenkyo Springs, Ranma. You fell into a spring yes-  
terday, as did I."  
  
"I fell into..."  
  
"We had to fish you out of Qipannichuan, Spring of Drowned Hope, sir." The familiar voice of the   
Juusenkyo guide piped up as he brought a plate of fish into the cabin and offered me some dinner.   
"You are first customer ever to fall into spring of Qipannichuan who make it out with life intact."   
The guide gave me a guarded look.  
  
"So...I just fell in this spring..." I allowed the joy of the matter to sink in. "So I'm free of the   
female side! Yes!!"  
  
The guide gave Genma a look and left the cabin. The latter of the two gave me a baleful sigh and   
pulled up a chair.  
  
"Son...I have something to tell you, and this is going to be hard on you."  
  
I nodded, knowing that nothing could possibly dampen my mood.  
  
  
  
* * *  
  
  
  
As I helped grandmother in her meditation, in order to define the terrible dream we had both awo-  
ken from, a horrific scream pierced the evening.  
  
""  
  
""  
  
I got up and grabbed my sword off of its rack, nodding to grandmother, but she stopped me before   
I made it to the door.  
  
"  
  
I gave my grandmother a curt nod and then returned to my cabin to see Mousse.  
  
"I am sorry for keeping you for so long, Airen. I must go on a Journey. I believe I know what has   
been causing our dreams."  
  
My love gently began to push his glasses onto his nose and don his robe in preparation for battle.  
  
  
  
* * *  
  
  
  
I methodically punched each post as I strove to regain my concentration. This couldn't be right.  
  
"Sir, you first person ever to fall into two springs! This is very special!"  
  
Special my ass! Certainly...my last six years of memory had never happened, but I still remem-  
bered them.  
  
"You see, sir...the spring of drowned hopes causes the person who fall in spring to live whole   
nother life. That person will experience worst possible conclusions to every event from that point   
on. Very few customers ever come out of spring."  
  
Then why the hell did I make it? I would rather have died than to have had this curse still!  
  
No...that wasn't true. I had something to live for.  
  
"So what about all the people I met?"  
  
"They is real people, sir."  
  
I grabbed pop by the scruff of the neck.  
  
"Here's the deal, pop. We're going to train for another year. You're going to teach me the Umisen-  
ken," I perversely enjoyed the old man's look of surprise, "and we're going to go to the Tendo   
Dojo in Nerima."  
  
At least that part was satisfying. I would get to see Akane again.  
  
As I continued methodically punching the posts I increased speed, working towards the level of   
conditioning I had before...the end.  
  
As I had expected, Cologne came through the brush behind me, flanked by Mousse and Shampoo.  
  
"Hello, Cologne." It was satisfying to see the old woman so surprised.  
  
"I seem to be at a disadvantage, young woman. Who are you?"  
  
"You know. I fell in the Qipannichuan."  
  
The old woman nodded sympathetically. "So that explains the dreams. May I enquire as to your   
name, and the source of your pain, assuming that deathly scream was you?"  
  
"You do the math, crone. I fell into the spring of drowned hope."  
  
Cologne looked as if she was ready to hop into a stance, and I realized that I had gone a bit to far.  
  
"I apologize, Cologne, but all i wish to do is regain the skills I had before that horrid dream ended   
and then go back to Akane."  
  
The old woman sighed and nodded, making ready to turn away and go back to her village.  
  
I had a sudden flash of insight. "I'd like to make you a deal, Cologne."  
  
The old woman turned around, her gaze piercing me.  
  
"I want you to train me in the Kachuu Tenchin Amaguriken, the Hiryuu Shoten Ha, and the shark   
fist."  
  
Very few things could have matched the glee I felt at seeing such surprise on the aged Amazon's   
face.  
  
To her credit, cologne quickly regained her composure and nodded wisely.  
  
"So be it, child. I shall train you provided you can beat Shampoo in single combat."  
  
"I don't think so, crone. I don't want the kiss of death again. I'll defeat Mousse." I heard a sound   
of facefaulting coming from the bushes.  
  
The crone nodded and Mousse, exactly as I remembered him, except perhaps a bit younger,   
walked towards me.  
  
"Okay, little girl. Get ready to have your rear end handed to you."  
  
I grinned at the half-blind ex-duck boy as I poured a convenient kettle of hot water on myself.   
"Who said anything about little girls?"  
  
  
  
* * *  
  
The fight was short. It was obvious that Ranma, for I remembered his name from the dream, was   
the superior fighter, and though he had lost his body from the dream, he retained his Ki power and   
many of his skills by memory. Some of these skills were entirely new to me.  
  
"Koutsugou Na Atemi no Pottuhoru!" I was going to enjoy this fight. The boy had just transmitted   
his Ki to a large area of ground immediately behind Mousse, using the blind fool as a shield while   
bombarding him with rocks, knocking him out in a total fight time of under five seconds.  
  
I approached the casually standing Saotome and clamped him on the shoulder. "It will be an honor   
to train you, son-in-law."  
  
  
  
* * *  
  
  
  
What did she just say!?  
  
"Just kidding." The old woman flashed a `peace and love' sign.  
  
A facefault brought me into unconsciousness.  
  
  
  
* * *  
  
Ranma awoke to my shaking his shoulder gently.  
  
"I'm sorry, Ranma. I didn't mean to scare you like that." Did I really do that in his dream?  
  
"It's not your fault, Cologne. Let's just say that I didn't ever expect to hear that phrase from you   
again."  
  
I nodded as if I understood, though I knew that I did not. This child would need some reassurance   
to recover from this nightmare he had lived, and I wouldn't be able to help him until I knew what   
had happened to him.  
  
  
  
* * *  
  
  
  
I sat outside the window of Matsui Yoiko, wondering why her name was so significant to me, and   
why I was sitting out her window when I so distinctly remembered being in China at this time.  
  
In hindsight, I should have realized that she'd be damn good at the art.  
  
I did realize, though, but not until I heard a cry of "Koutsugou Na Atemi no Pottuhoru!" From   
under myself and was tossed from the tree I was sitting in as it shattered, and oblivion welcomed   
me for what seemed like the tenth time that day.  
  
  
  
* * *  
  
  
  
"You'd better have a damn good reason for peeping into my window, whoever you are."  
  
I came to find myself strung outside a window, upside down, and staring a beautiful girl, presum-  
able Yoiko, who was in little more than an overlarge T-shirt glaring at me.  
  
"You're Yoiko Matsui...you were th..."  
  
Whack!!  
  
I went reeling to the ground as she cut me loose, hopped out of the window, and now held a very   
sharp dagger at my throat.  
  
"Okay, so I have a stalker, I can deal with that." I sighed in relief.  
  
"I'm not a st-" She cut me off. Not literally.  
  
"I'll just kill you."  
  
"What's going on, Yoi-chan?" A sleepy voice penetrated the night like a rather exhausted dagger.  
  
"I caught a peeping-tom, Sera-chan. What should I do with him?"  
  
The brunette from whom the voice came jumped with sudden glee and began to squeal with   
delight. "Let's extract information, Yoi-chan!"  
  
"Okay, okay, Sera. Don't wake the neighbors. I'll get the feathers. I hope he's ticklish. This could   
be fun!"  
  
  
  
* * *  
  
  
  
Two hours later, I was red in the face and short of breath from continuous laughter.  
  
"So...you're Hibiki Ryoga." Yoiko, the girl from the dream, grinned at me as if she was about to   
eat me. I personally wouldn't mind, so long as she put the damn feather away.  
  
Sera, the short gaijin brunette, looked at me with a bit of fear. "He's like the nice girl from the   
dream, Yoiko." The poor child looked as if she was about to start crying, she couldn't have been   
more than ten years old.  
  
In the blink of an eye, Yoiko's knife was at my throat again. "Are you the cause of this, you bas-  
tard?"  
  
Then I realized what was happening.  
  
  
  
* * *  
  
  
  
I gently put my arm across Yoi-chan's to keep her from hurting the boy.  
  
"He's had the dreams too, Yoiko." Through some miraculous act of God, I managed to keep my   
composure. "He knows why they're happening too, and who's at the center of this."  
  
The boy, Ryoga, looked at me as if I had just poleaxed him.  
  
Before he passed out again he managed to get out two short syllables.  
  
"Ran-ma."  
  
  
  
***  
  
  
  
The stage is set for a convergence of forces, as the events of the past are clarified.  
  
What happened in the Qipannichuan, what exactly is it?  
  
Will Ranma's life really be better than the old one?  
  
As this story is complete, that is for another tale,   
  
  
  
I may revise this chapter later, but as of yet, this story is done.  
  
Thanx to Freelance, RedDjango, and Tannimfodder.  
  
Special thanx to Figment (Prereader of this entire fic...damn, he's patient.)  
  
Very very special thanx to my love, forever, Riyousha.  
  
-Inu_Ranma (Inu_Ranma@yahoo.com) 


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